Timo Glock takes close first win of the season at Zandvoort

Timo Glock converted his pole position into a victory after a close race at Zandvoort, in an all-BMW podium together with Marco Wittmann and Maxime Martin.

At the start, Glock kept his position to lead the race, with Wittmann overtaking both Martin and Augusto Farfus at Turns 2 and 3 to take second place.

Farfus lost third place not long after to Martin and soon fell into the hands of Audi driver René Rast, who tried to overtake at Turn 1 on lap four. The Brazilian retook the position with some contact, without significant damage. Farfus would later receive a warning for changing direction more than once on the track as he tried to defend from Rast.

Mattias Ekström pitted at the end of lap four, going wide and off track at Turn 1 as the Swede exited the pits. The Audi driver spun at Turn 3 as he tried to get rid of the gravel collected. Wittmann and Martin pitted at the end of lap eight, maintaining their race order.

Race leader Glock changed tyres at the end of lap eight, with Wittmann gaining ground on the Team RMR driver. A lap later, the reigning champion was attacking his fellow BMW driver, with Martin also catching the duo.

The three BMWs caught Engel, who still hadn’t pitted, on lap 16, with Glock and Wittmann going through swiftly but Martin getting stuck behind the Mercedes and caught by Rockenfeller and Green. Martin and Engel came side by side on several occasions until the Belgian took the position at Turn 4.

Engel finally pitted at the end of lap 17, with Rockenfeller having fallen over three seconds behind Martin. Rast changed tyres on the following lap, with the 2013 champion lapping considerably faster than the Belgian and closing the gap. Six laps later, Rockenfeller was under half a second behind Martin, attacking the BMW. The pair were also catching Wittmann. By lap 28, Glock, Wittmann, Martin and Rockenfeller were all within DRS distance from each other.

Rockenfeller continued attacking Martin but ran out of DRS activations by lap 32. The German allowed Green to go through as he was better able to challenge the leading trio. Further back, Rast also ran out of DRS, losing a position to Mercedes’ Gary Paffett, who climbed up to eighth.

Standings leader Ekström retired on lap 35, after being unable to recover from the damage suffered in his off-road excursion.

Glock crossed the finish line in first position to take his first win of the season, accompanied on the podium by Wittmann and Martin.

Green conceded fourth position to Rockenfeller, with Farfus finishing sixth. The Mercedes of Paul Di Resta and Paffett were next, with the Audis of Rast and Müller completing the top ten.

Rast climbs back to the top of the standings with 114 points, one ahead of Ekström. Green is tied with Mercedes’ Lucas Auer in third with 99 points.