Marco Wittmann going “flat out” this weekend to keep title hope alive
BMW Motorsport driver Marco Wittmann heads to the Lausitzring with a “flat out” strategy to keep his chances for the 2019 DTM drivers’ title alive.
The Team RMG driver suffered a setback during the last round at Brands Hatch, where an ill-called two-stop strategy left him with no points as Audi rivals René Rast and Nico Müller scored a 1-2. Wittmann is trailing Rast by 59 points with just 168 left to be scored this season.
“This weekend, the focus is obviously clearly on bouncing back in the title race,” said the 29-year-old. “We will be flat out there again, and I believe the approach has always been very good at the recent race weekends.”
Wittmann added: “This allowed us to score a lot of points at Assen and on the Saturday at Brands Hatch. I think that has to be our approach again at Lausitz: go at it full throttle and make sure we are on the mark in terms of performance. We still have three race weekends to come, and we have to try to get the most out of them.”
The Team RMG driver also hopes to do well this weekend as the Lausitzring is a special track for him of the DTM calendar: “I obviously have fond memories of the Lausitzring, as it was there that I secured my first drivers’ title in 2014.”
BMW Motorsport is a full 284 points behind Audi Sport in the manufacturers’ championship, with the Ingolstadt-based squad able to secure an early title this weekend. Motorsport director Jens Marquardt shares his driver’s approach to the Lausitzring weekend.
“We still have six races ahead of us and our goal is to score as many points as possible for BMW with all six drivers,” said Marquardt. “It is going to be an exciting final spurt, and our teams and drivers will work hard to convert the BMW M4 DTM’s performance into top results in qualifying and the races.”
Timetable
Friday 23rd August
13:00 – Free Practice 1
16:20 – Free Practice 2
Saturday 24th August
10:35 – Qualifying for Race 1
13:30 – Race 1 (55 minutes plus one lap)
Sunday 25th August
10:35 – Qualifying for Race 2
13:30 – Race 2 (55 minutes plus one lap)
