BMW not happy after a difficult weekend
BMW Motorsport had a difficult day at the Red Bull Ring, host of the fifth round of the 2015 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season. António Félix Da Costa was the best placed driver for the Bavarian manufacturer in 11th position, a rewardless result for the Munich squad.
The day was dominated by the heavy rain that fell all day over Spielberg, which conditioned both the qualifying session and the race that had to be started behind the Safety Car. After a weekend lacking pace, BMW hoped for a Safety Car at some point in order to be able to gain positions. In the end, Da Costa was their best man on the track, finishing just outside of the points.
The Portuguese driver, who took his first DTM victory three weeks ago in Zandvoort, had a positive spin on the result: “We did what we could with the speed we had. I only made one little mistake, and that cost me a few seconds. All in all, I was able to climb a few places. That is a good sign. The weather meant the conditions out there were pretty tough.”
Reigning champion Marco Wittmann could only be 12th, with Martin Tomczyk right behind. Timo Glock was 15th, ahead of Bruno Spengler. Maxime Martin finished in 20th position, with Tom Blomqvist having to retire near the end of the race with mechanical problems.
BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt was obviously disappointed with the modest result: “On the whole, this has been a very difficult weekend for us. Even in dry conditions on Saturday we did not manage to get the best out of our package, with only Augusto Farfus and Marco Wittmann finishing in the points. A tough qualifying session meant that we were always going to have to rely on strategy to get a good result today. For this to be the case, we would have needed a safety car. That never happened. Therefore, 11th is our best finish. We are obviously not satisfied with that.”
