Marco Wittmann dominated the Sunday DTM race at Moscow Raceway, leading an M4 DTM sweep of the top four positions and emerging from the event with the drivers’ points lead.
His performance on Sunday stood in dramatic contrast to Saturday, when Wittmann finished nineteenth and momentarily lost his points lead to Robert Wickens, who won the race for Mercedes. BMW struggled in very wet conditions on Saturday in a race started behind the safety car. Only Maxime Martin (Team RBM) in sixth finished in the points.
On Sunday Wittmann took the pole in his Team RMG M4 DTM and led from the start. Wickens challenged Tom Blomqvist (Team RBM) for second, allowing Wittmann to build a cushion. Wickens eventually fell back, finishing fifth behind Wittmann and Blomqvist and Team MTEK racers Bruno Spengler and Augusto Farfus.
Saturday points finisher Martin had a difficult day on Sunday, crashing out while leading qualifying, starting from the back, and being forced to serve a drive through penalty. He finished seventeenth. Timo Glock (Team RMG), who appeared to be headed for a finish in the points, was forced to retire after he was hit by Mercedes’ Paul di Resta. di Resta was given a drive through penalty.
BMW left the race with leads in the drivers’, manufacturers’, and team (RMG) championships.
BMW motorsport director Jens Marquardt said, “That is an incredible result for us today, particularly given the way the race turned out for us yesterday. Marco really produced a top performance and made his intentions very clear in qualifying. His race was equally impressive. However, Tom Blomqvist, Bruno Spengler, Augusto Farfus and Timo Glock also had great races behind him. It is a shame that the opposition performed a number of unfair maneuvers. That cannot be allowed in the DTM. Compliments also to Maxime Martin for his fightback from the rear of the field, which saw him battle through to 17th place despite a drive-through penalty. We are obviously very happy to have regained the lead in all three championships. This result is something to celebrate.”
DTM competition resumes at the Nürburgring on September 9-11.—Brian S. Morgan
