Timo Glock sails from pole to victory in Oschersleben
Timo Glock turned his pole position into a strong win in Oschersleben today, host of the seventh round of the 2015 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season. The Team MTEK driver led a charge from BMW Motorsport, who took the top four final positions.
Sun and warm temperatures welcomed the DTM family for this afternoon’s race. Ahead there were 40 minutes plus one lap.
At the start, Glock got off well, with Augusto Farfus seeking to have a look on the outside. Braking towards the first corner, the Brazilian nudged fellow BMW driver Tom Blomqvist towards the outside, allowing António Félix Da Costa and Bruno Spengler to go through.
Further back, the second half of the pack got into muddle, with Mercedes’ Robert Wickens hitting several cars, which led to a few spins and bumps among them. The Canadian would be investigated after the race for it.
Debris on the track meant that, after just half a lap, the Safety Car was called out, with the pack being led through the pits as a cleaning truck was at the first corner.
Robert Wickens had severe damage to the front of his C63 DTM and, as soon as the race was relaunched and cars got up to speed, he lost half of the nose from his car, which caused another Safety Car intervention. The Canadian was forced to retire.
The race was relaunched with just 29 minutes on the clock. Bruno Spengler had overtaken António Félix Da Costa at the first restart, and was getting close to Timo Glock. As soon as the DRS was enabled, the Canadian tried to charge for the lead, but it soon became clear that he couldn’t be significantly faster than his team-mate.
Further back, several drivers started to have problems. Gary Paffett slowed down on the track and was forced to retire. The Briton said: “I lost quite important aero parts in the incidents at the start, but then the steering got really hard and I couldn’t continue.”
Pascal Wehrlein was complaining from what Mercedes AMG was diagnosing as a similar problem to Paffett’s. After being right behind Augusto Farfus and battling for fourth position, Wehrlein had to let go of the Brazilian and just defend from BMW’s Marco Wittmann. With 12 minutes on the clock, the HWA AG driver was told he had to find a way to “survive” the rest of the race.
Audi’s Jamie Green and Edoardo Mortara were also forced to retire with mechanical failures, as also did Nico Müller. Further back, Mattias Ekström, who had started the race from 23rd on the grid, was able to recover up to 14th place, spending the last few laps under attack from Mercedes’ Lucas Auer.
At the chequered flag, Timo Glock got his second career win in the DTM, and an important result for what was being a grey season for him. Fellow Team MTEK driver Bruno Spengler was second, with António Félix Da Costa completing the podium for BMW Motorsport.
Augusto Farfus was fourth, with Pascal Wehrlein managing to take the C63 DTM to the end to be fifth, just ahead of BMW’s Marco Wittmann, Tom Blomqvist and Martin Tomczyk.
Miguel Molina was ninth and only Audi driver in the points, with Team Mücke’s Daniel Juncadella closing the top 10 for Mercedes AMG.
Bruno Spengler was really pleased at the end: “I had a really good start, Timo had a very good place. I tried to use the DRS to get close, but I couldn’t. I’m very happy to be in the podium again, and it’s a good result for the team. The championship is very close, and we have to keep our feet on the ground because we had a very low weight, but with two races per weekend anything can happen.”
Timo Glock felt relieved after taking the victory: “I was pretty nervous at the start, was just thinking about getting a good start. It was tricky with the Safety Cars. I needed to show that I could pull away and get Bruno out of the DRS window. It has been a special win. Now it’s time to enjoy this.”
After this race, Pascal Wehrlein takes the lead of the Drivers’ standings with 130 points, 4 more than Mattias Ekström. Edoardo Mortara remains third with 110 points, with Jamie Green and Bruno Spengler tied with 103.
On track action for the DTM resumes tomorrow morning at 9:00 CEST (GMT + 2) for the morning warm up.
