Marco Wittmann emerged from the DTM weekend at the Norisring in the drivers’ points lead. BMW did not win either race on the street circuit in Nuremberg, but many of its drivers finished in the points.
Wittmann was the best BMW finisher on Saturday, when he came across the line fourth in his BMW Team RMG M4 DTM. Bruno Spengler (Team MTEK) finished fifth, Maxime Martin (Team RBM) finished sixth, and António Félix da Costa (Team Schnitzer) finished ninth. Saturday’s race was marked by a collision just before mid-race between Mercedes racers Christian Vietoris and Robert Wickens and Audi’s Mattias Ekstrom; the three racers were leading the pack at the time. Audi racer Edoardo Mortara took over the lead at that point and held on for the win.
Team RBM’s Tom Blomqvist started race two from the pole and held the lead until Audi racer Nico Mueller took over after a late pit stop. Blomqvist went on to finish second, with his RBM teammate Maxime Martin finishing third. Wittmann finished sixth and Spengler was next across the line in seventh. Two more BMWs finished in the points; Timo Glock (Team MTEK) was ninth and Martin Tomczyk (Team Schnitzer) was tenth.
After race two BMW motorsport director Jens Marquardt said “The fans in the grandstands were treated to the spectacular show they have come to expect. We did not expect to come away with such a good result. Obviously anyone starting from pole wants to win, but if anyone had told me before the weekend that Tom Blomqvist and Maxime Martin would finish second and third at the Norisring, I would have taken that immediately so my compliments to both of them, as well as Bart Mampaey and his entire team. We are very happy to have six cars in the top ten here.”
DTM competition resumes a Zandvoort on July 15-17.—Brian S. Morgan
