Timo Glock in a BMW Team RMG M4 DTM finished second in the first DTM race of the season at Hockenheim, and his RMG teammate Marco Wittmann, the defending DTM champion, finished third in race two.
Glock, who qualified fourth on the grid for race one, moved up to third in the first turn, and soon moved up to second. He chased first-place Mercedes racer Lucas Auer, getting into DRS range late in the race, but he was never able to get by the leader. Marco Wittman, who finished tenth, was the only other BMW racer in the points. Maxime Martin, Bruno Spengler, Augusto Farfus, and Tom Blomqvist finished eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fifteenth.
Glock took the pole for race two, which began in dry conditions and ended in the rain. He led early, then fell to second behind Audi’s Jamie Green, and then fell back on a restart after a safety car period. Both Glock and Spengler, who had pitted before the rain began at the halfway point in the race, had to come back to the pits for rain tires. Wittmann, who had started seventeenth on the eighteen-car grid, waited to pit until after the rain had started. He moved up to finish third; Glock finished eighth and BMW Team RBM’s Bruno Spengler finished ninth. Green won the race for Audi, and Mercedes’ Gary Paffett finished second,
DTM has changed this year; the cars are new, the Saturday and Sunday races are both 55-minute-plus-one-lap contests with a required pit stop, and points are given for the top three qualifiers. Audi, Mercedes, and BMW each have six cars this year.
BMW motorsport director Jens Marquardt said, “That was a nerve-racking second race here in Hockenheim. From fun and games with the weather to an Indy restart, the race had a bit of everything. It was really hard fought. A huge compliment goes to Marco, who came through from seventeenth to finish third. A superb race! It was not easy in the rain, but he made no mistakes. It was a shame for Timo that he perhaps came in a little too early for his pit stop. Apart from that it was a good effort. We finished in the top ten with three cars. It would have been nice to have finished a little further up the field, but we are happy to take the points. On the whole, we have a magnificent opening weekend of the 2017 DTM behind us. The measures that were implemented really paid off, and the drivers put on a great show for the fans against a fantastic backdrop. The races were exciting, with each of the three manufacturers finishing on the podium in both races. I am confident we have a fantastic season ahead of us. We now move on to the Lausitzring.”
The Lausitzring event will be run on May 19-21.—Brian S. Morgan
