BMW not content with just scoring points

BMW Motorsport had a more difficult than anticipated day at Hockenheim, with the first qualifying session and race of the year. Maxime Martin was the highest classified man for the Bavarian manufacturer in seventh place.

The Belgian from BMW Team RMG drove a solid race, avoiding the incidents in front of him, to make his way up the pack and reach the points.

Augusto Farfus had initially qualified in third place on the grid, but the Brazilian run out of fuel in his in lap, being excluded from the results and sent to the back of the grid. Farfus drove carefully in the race, finishing in tenth position.

Marco Wittmann qualified in sixteenth place and gained positions quickly to reach seventh place in the first lap. However, the reigning champion struggled with pace and was overtaken by his team mate and also by Timo Glock, to finish ninth.

Tom Blomqvist had a solid weekend, but had to retire in the early stages of the race with damage in his BMW M4 DTM.

Maxime Martin felt happy with being the best man for BMW, despite the modest result: “The race was very intense from the first corner to the last. The safety car phases made for a lot of action, and the fans will undoubtedly have enjoyed a great show. Seventh place is a good result for us, and earns us some valuable points. It is also a nice feeling to be the best-placed BMW driver. However, our opponents were better than us today. We have to acknowledge that. We will work hard to change that for the coming races.”

Jens Marquardt, Motorsport Director, thinks the team can do better with the M4 DTM: “The format produced exactly what it promised: an intense qualifying and an exciting race with plenty of overtaking manoeuvres and a lot of fans. Looking ahead to tomorrow’s race day, we must learn from today’s qualifying, in particular, and analyse what happened very carefully. In this regard, we must make better use of the existing potential, in order to be better positioned going into the race.”