Lausitzring. Maxime Martin (BEL) finished fourth in Saturday’s
DTM race at the Lausitzring (GER), scoring his first points of the
2017 season. He was the best-placed BMW driver in qualifying and
started the third race of the year from third place in his SAMSUNG
BMW M4 DTM. After 43 laps, he crossed the finishing line in fourth
place. The remaining BMW drivers missed out on the top ten.
Qualifying:
Maxime Martin had no problems
dealing with conditions that had cooled down considerably compared
with Friday, recording a personal best time of 01:16.404 minutes to
secure third place in his SAMSUNG BMW M4 DTM for which he was rewarded
with one point in the drivers’ championship. Timo Glock (GER, DEUTSCHE
POST BMW M4 DTM) and Tom Blomqvist (GBR, BMW Driving Experience M4
DTM) also produced strong performances in qualifying, claiming fifth
and sixth places respectively. Marco Wittmann (GER) finished in
eleventh position in the Red Bull BMW M4 DTM, just missing out on a
place in the top 10. Augusto Farfus (BRA, Shell BMW M4 DTM) and Bruno
Spengler (CAN, BMW Bank M4 DTM) finished in 15th and
18th places respectively, but started the race from
14th and 17th due to the demotion of Jamie Green
(GBR, Audi).
The race:
Maxime Martin started well from third place and was able to defend
his position in the early stages. He was even able to progress to
second place for a while. After making his pit stop just before the
halfway point of the race, Martin remained on course for a podium
finish. However, in the final third he was unable to prevent Robert
Wickens (CAN, Mercedes) and René Rast (GER, Audi) from overtaking.
Timo Glock and Tom Blomqvist looked set to finish in the points before
suffering setbacks. Blomqvist spun after contact in a battle with Paul
di Resta (GBR, Mercedes) and fell back a long way. As a result, the
Mercedes driver received a drive-through penalty. Glock got into
difficulty just after his pit stop and lost places after sliding into
the gravel trap. Glock finished the race in eleventh place, just ahead
of Farfus, Wittmann and Spengler. After his involvement in an accident
through no fault of his own, Blomqvist finished in 17th position.
The reactions:
BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt: “It was a
tough race today. It’s a shame that Maxime didn’t make it onto the
podium. He tried his best and recorded the best possible result. It is
really annoying for Tom to be turned by Paul di Resta. I think
everyone now knows that you have to be careful with cold tyres.
Something went wrong with Timo’s pit stop and we have to take a closer
look at that. The DTM is so close that it is always difficult when
things don’t run smoothly. Having just one car in the top 10, in
fourth place, is not enough. We’ll take that result though, and make
sure that we do better tomorrow. Congratulations to Mercedes on their win.”
Stefan Reinhold (team principal, BMW Team RMG): “We
will analyse how we can do better tomorrow. Of course we are
disappointed with how things went today. Timo was able to compete at
the front during the first stint. He had some problems after the pit
stop, but he was back on the pace later. Now we have to search for the
cause of the problems. Tomorrow is a new day, and we want to go on the
attack again.”
Marco Wittmann (#11, Red Bull BMW M4 DTM – Grid position:
11th, race result: 13th – 59 races, 8 wins, 16
podiums, 8 pole positions, 539 points, 2 Drivers’ titles):
“It was a disappointing race for me and some of the other BMW
drivers, but not for Maxime as he was able to claim fourth place. The
others were just better than me today, they had less tyre wear and a
better pace. Of course it is annoying that we didn’t finish in the
points and it was a difficult day in general for BMW. Now we have to
look and see where we can improve tomorrow.”
Augusto Farfus (#15, Shell BMW M4 DTM – Grid position:
14th, race result: 12th – 69 races, 4 wins, 12
podiums, 5 pole positions, 345 points): “It was an intense
race. We just didn’t have the pace required to make progress. In the
end, it was about staying in the group and trying to score a few
points. That didn’t quite work out but I was able to make up some
places. I think we did collect some important information that will
help us tomorrow.”
Timo Glock (#16, DEUTSCHE POST BMW M4 DTM – Grid position:
5th, race result: 11th – 59 races, 3 wins, 6
podiums, 2 pole positions, 238 points): “The start was
actually OK and everything felt fine for the first few laps. At some
point, we started to struggle with the tyres. I think we just stayed
out too long but you can’t do much about that. After the pit stop, the
car didn’t want to steer to the right and I had to go through the
gravel. I have no idea what caused that. After that, the vibrations
were causing me issues. It’s a shame that we weren’t able to finish in
the points today.”
Bart Mampaey (team principal, BMW Team RBM): “It was
difficult for Bruno to start from the back but he produced a good race
performance. We tried out a different strategy with him but it didn’t
pay off. Bruno did his job well and was still there for BMW at the
end. We will try to improve the car for tomorrow and challenge for
better placing. As for Tom: what can I say? He was hit by another car
that came out of the pits on cold tyres. It’s a big shame as he was in
a top 10 position and was doing well. Maxime’s fourth place feels like
a win today. He drove a great race. The strategy was fine but we will
try to do better overall tomorrow.”
Bruno Spengler (#7, BMW Bank BMW M4 DTM – Grid position:
17th, race result: 14th – 142 races, 14 wins,
45 podiums, 17 pole positions, 760 points, 1 Drivers’ title):
“It was just a bad day for us. We have a lot of work to do to
improve the car for tomorrow. Qualifying was difficult enough and
things didn’t improve in the race. We will now work hard to prepare
for tomorrow.”
Tom Blomqvist (#31, BMW Driving Experience M4 DTM – Grid
position: 6th, race result: 17th – 39 races, 1
win, 5 podiums, 1 pole position, 172 points): “It was a
race to forget for me. I was in sixth place before my pit stop. One
lap after my stop, Paul di Resta came out of the pit lane on cold
tyres. I knew that it could get tight on turn four and I tried to
leave plenty of room. He had some understeer and turned me, even
though I had left enough space. I was in last place after that and
couldn’t do anything else.”
Maxime Martin (#36, SAMSUNG BMW M4 DTM – Grid position:
3rd, race result: 4th – 49 races, 2 wins, 6
podiums, 2 pole positions, 244 points): “It was a tough
race for BMW. I did my best but the other teams just had too much pace
in the race. It was difficult to combat that. I was hoping for a
podium finish, and I wasn’t far off. But in the end, it wasn’t quite
enough. Nonetheless: I am happy to have scored some points again. Now
we have to work hard for tomorrow even though I think that it will be
difficult again.”
The standings:
Drivers: 1. Lucas Auer (68 points), 2. Gary Paffett
(34), 3. Mike Rockenfeller (31), 4. Jamie Green (27), 5. Timo
Glock (25), 6. René Rast (25), 7. Robert Wickens (20), 8.
Edoardo Mortara (19), 9. Marco Wittmann (16), 10.
Mattias Ekström (14), 11. Maxime Martin (13), 12.
Nico Müller (12), 13. Paul di Resta (12), 14. Maro Engel (3),
15. Bruno Spengler (2), 16. Augusto Farfus (0), 17. Tom
Blomqvist (0), 18. Loic Duval (0).
Teams: 1. Mercedes-AMG Motorsport BWT (87 points), 2.
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Mercedes me (54), 3. Audi Sport Team Rosberg
(52), 4. Audi Sport Team Phoenix (31), 5. Audi Sport Team Abt
Sportsline (26), 6. BMW Team RMR (25), 7. BMW Team RMG (16),
BMW Team RBM (15), 9. Mercedes-AMG Motorsport SILBERPFEIL
Energy (15).
Manufacturers: 1. Mercedes (156 points), 2. Audi
(109), 3. BMW (56).
The service:
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