Maxime Martin satisfied with new points result

BMW Motorsport had an improvable day at the Moscow Raceway, host of the sixth round of the 2016 DTM season. The Bavarian manufacturer struggled in the wet conditions, with Maxime Martin saving the day by being the only points scorer in the team.

From the second practice session in the morning, it was clear that the BMW M4 DTMs struggled on the wet track. After the qualifying session, the performance weights were recalculated, with the Bavarian cars being lighter than their rivals by a big margin. This advantage was nullified under the heavy rain that permeated the race.

Starting in the middle of the pack under the conditions at the Moscow Raceway today had an added problem: the visibility was very poor, making challenging other drivers for position difficult and dangerous.

Maxime Martin managed to not lose any positions during the race, despite coming under pressure from Audi’s Jamie Green in the final stages of the race. The Belgian was sixth, bringing the only points of the day for BMW. “That was a tough race in difficult conditions. There was an awful lot of standing water at some points on the track. I am happy with sixth, as it means I scored some valuable points” said Martin, who is sixth on the Drivers’ table.

Timo Glock was also in the points positions at the beginning of the race, battling with Mercedes AMG’s Felix Rosenqvist for eighth place. However, they were overtaken by recovering Audi drivers Edoardo Mortara and Jamie Green, with Glock finishing 11th. The German driver said: “That is obviously not the result I was hoping for. The goal was to finish in the points. However, I simply had too little grip at the start and was just sliding around all over the place. That allowed a few people to pass me. We just didn’t have a good pace in the race.”

The poor result in the race has meant that BMW Motorsport went from being first in the Manufacturers’ table to third and last, nine points behind leading Mercedes AMG.

Jens Marquardt, BMW Motorsport Director, hopes for a better result tomorrow: “That was a tough race for us. It was clear after qualifying that it would not be easy to fight our way through the field in the race. Then the rain became even heavier and our drivers struggled to get the tyres up to the optimal temperature. Maxime Martin managed that best of all, which is why he thoroughly deserved to finish sixth. Unfortunately, the race as a whole was relatively uneventful.

The DTM field will be back on track tomorrow at 9:10 local time for the third and final free practice session.