Wittmann disqualified from Sunday win
Timo Glock led a BMW podium sweep in the Saturday DTM race at Zandvoort in the Netherlands. On Sunday Marco Wittmann scored his first win of the season on the track, but was disqualified after his car failed a post-race inspection.
Glock (Team RMR) had qualified on the pole for Saturday’s race, setting his time in the first half of qualifying before rain broke out and prevented others from posting faster times. He led from the pole, running ahead of Wittmann (Team RMG), Maxime Martin (Team RBM), and Augusto Farfus (Team RMG), who fell back from second after the first few corners. Glock went on to win ahead of Wittmann and Martin. Farfus, sixth at the end of the race, also finished in the points.
Farfus started from the race two pole ahead of Wittmann and Martin. Martin got bogged down at the start as Wittmann blew by Farfus to take the lead. After pit stops Wittmann had to fight off a hard-charging Mike Rockenfeller in an Audi. Wittmann held on for the win on the circuit with Rockenfeller leading three more Audis across the line.
After the race technical inspectors were unable to draw a 1kg sample of fuel from Wittmann's car. As a result Rockenfeller was declared the winner. Four BMWs finished n the points; Martin was sixth, Glock was seventh, Farfus was eighth, and Bruno Spengler (Team RBM) was tenth
BMW motorsport director Jens Marquardt said, “On the whole, we have scored a lot of points in Zandvoort. The one-two-three on Saturday, with Timo Glock, Marco Wittmann and Maxime Martin on the podium, was one of the absolute highlights of the season. Unfortunately, Marco Wittmann’s disqualification on Sunday prevented us from adding a second victory. That is obviously a great shame. We will look into how it could have happened. Maxime Martin and Timo Glock fought very hard in the race, and Augusto Farfus and Bruno Spengler also picked up points. Hard-fought overtaking maneuvers, plenty of action and a lot of points: despite the disappointment of missing out on victory on Sunday, Zandvoort was definitely worth the trip again for us this year.
DTM competition resumes at the Nürburgring on September 9 and 10.—Brian S. Morgan
