Tomczyk rules himself out of title contention

The reigning champion Martin Tomczyk has ruled himself out of the title contention after finding himself 40 points shy of Gary Paffett. The German received a penalty for an incident at Zandvoort which, according to him, will highly affect his chances of performing at his best at Oschersleben, although he still feels motivated and is not ruling out a good performance.

Speaking of the penalty, the German is frustrated.
“Although three weeks have passed, I still feel the punishment is very severe. Despite this, I accept the race director’s decision and just have to live with it. Losing five places on the grid is certainly a blow, but I will fight hard.

I am very motivated, even though I am obviously no longer challenging for the championship. There is no chance of me catching the front-runners now.”

The BMW driver confirmed he wants at least a race win, stating that the podiums he scored so far were not enough for him or the Bavarian manufacturer to be satisfied.

“Everyone at BMW – and that includes me – can be proud of what we have achieved so far. However, we are obviously still hungry for success. I have been on the podium several times in 2012, but not yet on the top step. I am determined to get back there by the end of the season.”

Tomczyk is hoping for rain to mix the cards, as his penalty will affect his chances to fulfill this goal in tomorrow’s race.

“That will naturally be difficult in Oschersleben, for obvious reasons, although I did manage to fight my way into second place from quite a long way back in the field there last season. It was raining then, however, so I am hoping the track will be wet for the race again this year. That would do my chances no harm at all.”

The defending champion continued by saying that BMW can be happy with its DTM comeback year, stating that the Bavarian cars have exceeded the expectations.

“Generally speaking, BMW and I can be more than happy with the way the season has panned out so far. I think we have been able to far exceed our own expectations – and those of the public. We have proven we are not only able to keep up with the others, but are absolutely competitive.”

The German still feels that the M3 can be improved and he is looking forward to seeing the car progress at every race meeting.

“Our performances have consistently been good. Anyway, we still have room for improvement, and want to take a step forward with every race.”

Tomczyk is currently fifth in the standings and is the second best placed BMW driver so far, his title contending team mate Bruno Spengler being the only driver able to perform better than him. The next BMW down in the standings is Augusto Farfus, who is in ninth with 19 points to his tally in his DTM debut season. Tomczyk will start from eleventh on the grid after qualifying in sixth in qualifying.