Racing News
Defending series champion Bruno Spengler, driving a Team Schnitzer M3 DTM, led a BMW podium sweep in the DTM race on the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. Two more M3 DTMs finished in the top eight positions.
Spengler started from the pole and led flag-to-flag except for the periods immediately after his pit stops. The M3s of BMW Team MTEK, the marque’s new team this season, finished second and third; rookie Marco Wittman took second, and Formula 1 transplant Timo Glock was third. Glock challenged for the lead, moving from eleventh to second on soft tires after his first pit stop, but difficulty mounting the left front tire during his second stop dropped him to third behind Wittman.
BMW Team RBM’s Augusto Farfus finished sixth; he was punted out of fifth by Audi racer Mattias Ekstrom just two laps from the end. Dirk Werner, Spengler’s Team Schnitzer teammate, finished eighth.
Andy Priaulx started last and finished nineteenth, while both Martin Tomczyk and Joey Hand exited the race. Tomcyzk dropped out after he was hit by Robert Merhi’s Mercedes, while Hand, who had been fastest in free practice on Friday, left the race when his car lost a wheel after his first pit stop.
The series runs next in two weeks on the Lausitzring near Dresden.—Brian S. Morgan
