BMW’s Bruno Spengler won the DTM race at the Lausitzring, giving BMW a win in the second race of its return to the series after a twenty year absence. Augusto Farfus finished third in another BMW.
The win for the factory M3 DTM was accompanied by victories for customer cars in a number of series, including WTCC, the ADAC masters series, and the Italian and Japanese GT series.
Spengler wins from the pole at the Lausitzring
Bruno Spengler started from the pole in the May 6 DTM race at the Lausitzring, ahead of fellow BMW racer Augusto Farfus. Spengler held onto the lead at the start of the race, while Mercedes’ Gary Paffett, winner of last week’s season opener in Hockenheim, got by Farfus for third.
Paffett stayed on Spengler’s tail for the duration of the race, but was never able to take the lead. Farfus held on to finish third, holding off a challenge from Mercedes racer Jamie Green, who had placed second last week.
It was the tenth DTM victory for the 28-old Spengler, who raced for Mercedes in the series from 2005 through 2010. Spengler’s DTM M3 is run by BMW Team Schnitzer, the same team that had run Roberto Ravaglia’s M3 in 1992. Ravaglia scored BMW’s last two DTM wins for the team at Hockenheim in October 1992.
BMW Motorsport director Jens Marquardt said, “This is a very special moment – beyond our wildest dreams. Bruno Spengler’s magnificent victory is the icing on the cake at the end of an incredible week. First came our impressive comeback weekend in Hockenheim, then the first pole position yesterday and now – in only our second race – our first victory in the new DTM era. That is really fantastic, simply unbelievable. Bruno produced an outstanding performance and took full advantage of his pole position. He has added another important chapter to BMW’s success story in motorsport. On the 40th anniversary of BMW M, we have taken the number of wins achieved by the BMW M3 in the DTM to 41. That makes me extremely proud, particularly bearing in mind the hard work that everyone in the team has put in over the last few weeks and months.”
Michelisz wins in WTCC
Local hero Norbert Michelisz won the second sprint when the World Touring Car Championship ran at the Hungaroring. Michelisz powered his Zengo Motorsport 320 TC into the lead at turn one, getting a great start from his fifth position on the grid. He motored away from the pack, trailed by SEAT’S Pepe Oriola at the start, and led the entire race. Chevrolet’s Alain Menu finished second ahead of Proteam BMW’s Mehdi Bennani and Oriola.
Chevrolet racers Yvan Muller, Robert Huff, and Menu swept the podium in race one, ahead of Bennani, SEAT’s Tiago Montiero, BMW racer Tom Coronel, and Michelisz. The qualifying times of Coronel and his ROAL Motorsport teammate Alberto Cerqui were disallowed after the team plugged laptops into the cars under parc ferme conditions after the first qualifying session.
The WTCC runs again on the Salzburgring in Austria on May 19-20.
Z4 GT3 racers win in the Netherlands, Italy, and Japan
Z4 GT3 customer cars rounded out BMW’s winning weekend with three victories: Dutch racers Jeroen den Boer and Simon Knap of Team DB Motorsport won the ADAC GT Masters race at Zandvoort ahead of Schubert Motorsport’s Claudia Hürtgen and Dominik Schwager; Thomas Biagi and Stefano Colombo of Team BMW Italia finished second in the first round of the Italian GT championship at Vallelunga on Saturday and won the second round on Sunday; and on Friday, Japanese racers Nobuteru Taniguchi and Tatsuya Kataoka won the GT300 category in the second round of the Japanese Super GT Championship in Fuji.—Brian S. Morgan, motorsports editor, bmwcca.org
