Three BMW M4 DTMs in the points at the Red Bull Ring.

Bruno Spengler (CAN) was twelfth, Tom Blomqvist (GBR)
16th, and Augusto Farfus (BRA) was forced to retire with
a damaged car.

 

The qualifying:
After the morning’s free
practice was delayed due to thick fog, qualifying took place under a
cloudless sky at noon. Once again, it came down to mere thousandths of
a second: Marco Wittmann was fourth fastest with a time of 1:22.054
minutes, but only missed out on pole by 0.081 seconds. Maxime Martin
(SAMSUNG BMW M4 DTM), Timo Glock (DEUTSCHE POST BMW M4 DTM) and
Augusto Farfus (Shell BMW M4 DTM) followed in eighth, ninth and
tenth. Bruno Spengler (BMW Bank M4 DTM) ended qualifying in
13th place, while Tom Blomqvist (BMW Driving Experience M4
DTM) qualified 16th.

 

The race:

A tight battle for the lead saw Marco Wittmann lose one position and
drop to fifth at the start. Augusto Farfus came off the track during
his battle with Lucas Auer (AUT, Mercedes) and hit the gravel trap at
high speed, causing his car to leave the ground. The Brazilian was
initially able to continue the race at the back of the field, but
subsequently had to return his car to the BMW Team RMG garage as it
was too severely damaged to finish the race. Five of the six BMW
drivers came in for their pit stops within the first eleven laps. Only
Bruno Spengler stayed out for a longer first stint, opting not to come
in for a tyre change until the 27th lap. Wittmann and
Martin ultimately finished fifth and sixth. Glock was tenth, Spengler
12th, and Blomqvist 16th.

 

The reactions:

 

BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt: “That was a
tough race, in which we made the best of the situation today. We were
definitely not able to match the pace of the three Audis out in front,
but the entire field was relatively evenly matched behind the those
three. You could see how difficult it was to overtake; nobody even
managed to pass Robert Wickens in a damaged car. We will take the
points for fifth, sixth and tenth and concentrate on preparing for
tomorrow. We will push hard again.”

 

Stefan Reinhold (Team Principal, BMW Team RMG): “We
had a mixed qualifying result, and were then unable to step it up in
the race. We have to be happy with what we achieved. I will have to
take another close look at the crash involving Augusto Farfus. In any
case, we have a lot of work to do to repair his car. We will try to
improve tomorrow. We must first get to the front of the field in
qualifying, and then fight to defend our positions in the race.”

 

Marco Wittmann (#11, Red Bull BMW M4 DTM – Grid position:
4th place, race result: 5th place – 71 races,
8 wins, 18 podiums, 8 pole positions, 648 points, 2 drivers’
titles):
“Fifth place is pretty much the best we could have
hoped for today. I had a nice scrap with Robert Wickens. He was quick
and had good traction, which made it extremely difficult to attack
him, even with DRS. It did not work out in the end, but we have
another chance tomorrow.

 

Augusto Farfus (#15, Shell BMW M4 DTM – Grid position:
10th place, race result: retired – 81 races, 4 wins, 12
podiums, 6 pole positions, 374 points):
“That was not our
day. I had to swerve to avoid a collision right at the start. The
ensuing trip into the gravel damaged my car so severely that we
eventually had to retire. I am happy that nothing more serious
happened in the incident. I was able to save a set of tyres today, so
will attack again tomorrow.

 

Timo Glock (#16, DEUTSCHE POST BMW M4 DTM – Grid position:
9th place, race result: 10th place – 71 races,
4 wins, 8 podiums, 3 pole positions, 322 points):
“The
start was okay. Unfortunately, I was on the wrong side in turns one
and three, which resulted in me losing places. After that, we
basically just drove around in a line for the rest of the race. There
was no chance to overtake. In the end, we had to settle for one point.

 

Bart Mampaey (Team Principal, BMW Team RBM): “We had
a good race. It is not so easy to make up positions in this field and,
as you could see, a few cars got in our way. However, we got on with
our race, kept a cool head and fought hard. Our pit stops were very
good and Maxime climbed two positions. We are happy with that.

 

Bruno Spengler (#7, BMW Bank BMW M4 DTM – Grid position:
13th place, race result: 12th place – 154
races, 15 wins, 48 podiums, 18 pole positions, 832 points, 1
drivers’ title):
“The race strategy was actually a good
one. Maybe we could have stopped a little earlier but, on the whole,
it was okay. It was very difficult to overtake and I had a whole train
of cars in front of me. We could not do any better than twelfth, as
you simply could not overtake.

 

Tom Blomqvist (#31, BMW Driving Experience M4 DTM – Grid
position: 16th place, race result: 16th place
– 51 races, 1 win, 5 podiums, 2 pole positions, 194 points):
“That did not go particularly well for us. We stopped on lap
one and pinned our hopes on a safety car. Unfortunately, that was not
to be. We have to move on from that race and improve tomorrow.

 

Maxime Martin (#36, SAMSUNG BMW M4 DTM – Grid position:
8th place, race result: 6th place – 61 races,
3 wins, 10 podiums, 3 pole positions, 341 points):
“Sixth
place is not too bad. We did as well as we could have hoped. Audi was
simply very strong today. All in all, it was a good race for me. It
was not easy, but I had a few great battles. I am happy with the
result. We scored some good points.

 

The standings:

 

Drivers: 1. Mattias Ekström (162 points), 2. Jamie
Green (134), 3. Lucas Auer (131), 4. Marco Wittmann (125), 5. René
Rast (124), 6. Mike Rockenfeller (116), 7. Robert Wickens (112), 8.
Maxime Martin (110), 9. Timo Glock (109), 10. Paul di Resta (97), 11.
Gary Paffett (76), 12. Bruno Spengler (74), 13. Nico Müller (66), 14.
Maro Engel (51), 15. Edoardo Mortara (49), 16. Augusto Farfus (29),
17. Tom Blomqvist (22), 18. Loic Duval (18).

 

Teams: 1. Audi Sport Team Rosberg (258 points), 2.
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline (228), 3. Mercedes-AMG Motorsport
Mercedes me (188), 4. BMW Team RBM (184), 5. Mercedes-AMG Motorsport
BWT (180), 6. BMW Team RMG (154), 7. Mercedes-AMG Motorsport
SILBERPFEIL Energy (148), 8. Audi Sport Team Phoenix (134), 9. BMW
Team RMR (131).

Manufacturers: 1. Audi (620 points), 2. Mercedes
(516), 3. BMW (469).

 

The service:

BMW Motorsport offers an innovative Chatbot service for journalists
in the 2017 DTM season. This allows users to receive the latest
information directly to their smartphone via WhatsApp Messenger. The
information available includes driver statistics, statements and
photos. You can register for the BMW Motorsport Chatbot at the
following link:

http://bit.ly/BMW_Motorsport_Media_Broadcast_EN