Racing News

    Five BMWs finish in the top ten at Hockenheim

    Augusto Farfus won the first race of the DTM season in Hockenheim on Sunday in a BMW Team RBM M3 DTM, with BMW Team Schnitzer’s Dirk Werner finishing less than four seconds behind him in second place. Defending champion Bruno Spengler finished fifth in the second Team Schnitzer car, just behind a pair of Mercedes piloted by Christian Vietoris and Gary Paffett.

     
    Farfus’ Team RBM teammate, American driver Joey Hand, finished a strong seventh, and DTM rookie Marco Wittman finished ninth in a BMW Team MTEK M3. 

    Farfus started second on the grid, running the new option tires, and pitted early during a safety-car period. The stop left him out of sequence with the other front-runners. He took the lead after his second stop when the rest of the leaders pitted.

    Werner finished second with a very different strategy. He started 20th on the 22-car grid, switched to the option tires on his first stop, and fought his way to the front on a very long middle stint. He held on to second place after making his second stop very late in the race.

    BMW racers Martin Tomczyk and Andy Priaulx finished thirteenth and seventeenth, while Timo Glock dropped out when his car lost a wheel just after his second pit stop.

    BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt said, “That was a really awesome start to the season. I must pay a huge compliment to everyone in the team – particularly to Augusto Farfus and Dirk Werner, of course, who presented us with our first one-two since we returned to the DTM. Augusto did not make a single mistake, and BMW Team RBM got its strategy spot on. The same can be said of BMW Team Schnitzer, who helped Dirk climb from 20th to a remarkable second. His fightback was simply fantastic. I hope the first race of the years was as thrilling and exciting for the fans as it was for us. I feel sorry for Timo Glock. He was looking very good at the start and did a great job of cutting through the field. However, any new team is always on a learning curve, and that unfortunately includes set-backs. That makes me even more delighted that his team-mate Marco Wittmann finished in the points in his first race, having started from right at the back.”

    DTM runs again in two weeks at Brands Hatch in the UK.—Brian S. Morgan