Photo: BMW Press Club

BMW continues to have reasons to celebrate in Zandvoort

BMW’s aspirations didn’t end two weeks ago, with Marco Wittmann’s first DTM crown. The Bavarian manufacturer added today the Teams’ title for BMW Team RMG, as well as having in their ranks the 2014 Rookie of the Year, Belgian Maxime Martin.

BMW put four of their cars in the points today in Zandvoort, including Wittmann and Martin, which gave Team RMG enough points advantage over Audi Team Abt Sportsline to secure the title, ahead of the final meeting in Hockenheim.

To make things even better, Maxime Martin secured the title as the “Rookie of the Year”, having scored 47 points, unreachable now for Audi’s Nico Müller.

On the Manufacturers’ front, BMW leads Audi by 21 points, and it’s all set for the final showdown in Hockenheim.

Head of BMW Motorsport, Jens Marquardt, felt relieved after a race that put everybody’s strategy to the test: “That was an extremely eventful race. The many safety car periods made it difficult to keep track of what was going on at times. We were constantly having to change our strategy, and the last few laps came down to a sprint. We are obviously happy to have two drivers on the podium. Marco Wittmann and Martin Tomczyk produced great performances and kept cool heads at all times. Maxime Martin also had a great race and has already earned the title of ‘Rookie of the Year’. We are also delighted for BMW Team RMG, who won the Team competition today with one race to go. Congratulations to Mattias Ekström and Audi on their win.”

Stefan Reinhold, Team Principal at BMW Team RMG, was very satisfied by the performance shown by his drivers this season: “After the race at the Lausitzring, today was another of this season’s highlights. We are all overjoyed. This is the reward for all the hard work of the last few weeks, months and years. We also showed that we can land both cars near the front of the field. Marco Wittmann has obviously been outstanding this year. However, Maxime Martin has also performed very strongly as a rookie in 2014, and not only at his win in Moscow. He fought back very well today and also scored a superb result. We will now continue to push hard to ensure that BMW still leads the Manufacturers’ Championship after the finale in Hockenheim.”

Marco Wittmann drove, once again, a strong race to get his fifth podium result of the year in second position: “I got off to a great start and pulled ahead of Mike Rockenfeller. However, my option tyres degraded very quickly after that, and I was unable to maintain my pace. My team did an awesome job and brought me into the pits early for the tyre change. That was absolutely the right decision. You obviously also need a bit of luck when there are that many safety car periods and we had it.”

Martin Tomczyk had a solid performance and got his first podium finish in over two years: “It is very satisfying to get back on the podium after such a long time. I have had some tough times. Today, I was finally able to prove that I can still make it onto the podium when everything comes together. The pace was good throughout the entire race. To finish third today is almost a form of redemption.” 

2014 Rookie of the Year, Maxime Martin, recovered from the midfield to have a strong second part of the race, gaining positions to score points again, in sixth position: “That is a magnificent day for me and my team. The weekend did not exactly get off to a great start for us. We scored important points and have been crowned Team champions with a race to spare. I am delighted for the guys at BMW Team RMG.  I won the ‘Rookie of the Year’ title today. I am proud to be recognised as the best newcomer in this fiercely-contested series. All that is missing now is the Manufacturers’ title for BMW. We want to seal that in Hockenheim.”

BMW leads Audi by 21 points going into the final round of the season at Hockenheim. Should the Bavarian manufacturer get the crown, they would have made a clean sweep in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters this season.