Bruno Spengler: “I could not do any better today”

BMW’s Bruno Spengler, believes it was impossible for him to do any better than seventh following a disappointing weekend for the reigning DTM champions at the Lausitzring.

Spengler qualified fifth yesterday, and following stablemate Augusto Farfus’ grid penalty, was the sole BMW representative in the top 10.

Although he was only able to finish seventh in this afternoon’s race, the French Canadian driver managed to be the best placed of the BMW drivers, which saw him score sufficient points to tie with Audi’s Mike Rockenfeller at the head of the drivers’ standings with 59 points.

“That was a tough weekend for me,” said Spengler after the race. “The opposition simply did their job better than us this time. You have to acknowledge that.”

Despite a trying weekend, he payed tribute to the Schnitzer BMW team’s efforts in improving the M3 package since Saturday morning’s practice session.

“We were hopeless in Saturday’s free practice,” said Spengler. “My team managed to continuously improve the car ahead of qualifying and the race, [but] I [simply] could not do any better today.

“I spent a lot of time looking in my mirror. Seventh was the best I could have hoped for.”

On the final lap, Spengler almost lost the position to Audi’s Mattias Ekström, after the Swede got the drive on him coming onto the start/finish straight. The pair banged wheels until the BMW crossed the line by a mere 0.029 seconds to keep the position.

Despite showing a one fingered salute to Ekström, Spengler insists that the matter between the two drivers is now settled.

“Towards the end of the race, I had to fight hard for my position, [as] [Mattias] Ekström pushed me from behind a couple of times.

“Obviously I wasn’t too happy about that, however, we talked about it after the race and as far as I am concerned the matter is settled.”

To compound his difficult weekend, Spengler was fined €1000 for the gesture.