Marco Wittmann Starts From The Fourth Row At BMW’s Home Race – Tough Qualifying For Spengler

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It was a tough day of qualifying for all the BMW DTM drivers, with Canada's Bruno Spengler no better than 16th.

 
By: BMW Motorsport
June 28, 2014 
 

Norisring, Germany – Qualifying for the fourth DTM race of the season at the Norisring (DE) did not go entirely to plan for the BMW teams. Local favourite and DTM leader Marco Wittmann (DE) was the best-placed BMW driver, qualifying eighth in the Ice-Watch BMW M4 DTM. The 24-year-old overcame the disadvantage of an additional five kilograms of ballast, added to his car as a result of his recent success, to progress to the third qualifying session. He now goes into Sunday's race with every chance of adding to his points tally. Fellow BMW Team RMG driver Maxime Martin (BE) landed his SAMSUNG BMW M4 DTM in 11th place on tomorrow's grid.

Timo Glock (DE, DEUTSCHE POST BMW M4 DTM), Joey Hand (US, Crowne Plaza Hotels BMW M4 DTM), Augusto Farfus (BR, Castrol EDGE BMW M4 DTM) and Bruno Spengler (CA, BMW Bank M4 DTM) followed in positions 13, 14, 15 and 16. Martin Tomczyk (DE, BMW M Performance Parts M4 DTM) in 19th and António Félix da Costa (PT, Red Bull BMW M4 DTM) in 22nd failed to progress beyond the first qualifying session. Tomczyk missed out on Q2 by just one thousandths of a second.

The race begins on at 13:30 Sunday (live on ARD).

Jens Marquardt (BMW Motorsport Director):
"We are obviously not happy with this qualifying result. It was once again extremely close here. In the first qualifying session, just four tenths of a second separated first from 23rd place. That shows how incredibly evenly-matched the drivers and manufacturers are on this short circuit. It looked pretty good for us at first, but unfortunately qualifying then went the wrong way for us. A great performance from Marco Wittmann has at least given us some reason for optimism looking ahead to tomorrow's race, with regard to the Drivers' Championship too. We still have to take a close look at the exact reasons behind the poor result. The Performance Weight definitely played a role here. One way or another, we are looking forward to an exciting race tomorrow, especially as rain is forecast. We hope local favourite Marco can come up with a good result in front of his home fans. Congratulations to Robert Wickens and Mercedes on a strong display."
 
Joey Hand (car number 4, BMW Team RBM, 14th):
"In actual fact, that was almost better than expected for me. It is a tough weekend for us. BMW Motorsport and BMW Team RBM have really worked hard. We had a new schedule today. It is great fun having two practice sessions, and it is better for the fans. However, this does mean a lot of work between sessions for our guys. I am now looking forward to the race. It will be a real battle, and it could be a wet one. We are ready for it."
 
Bruno Spengler (car number 9, BMW Team Schnitzer, 16th):
"That was not our day today. It is hard to say what it is down to. We must analyse it closely now, in order to be able to push in tomorrow's race. That will be difficult for me from 16th on the grid. I don't believe in miracles. All that can help now is hard work. We will do our very best to make up places tomorrow. Let's see what kind of weather we have. Maybe that will help us."
 
Martin Tomczyk (car number 10, BMW Team Schnitzer, 19th):
"That is obviously not the result I was looking for. However, we saw that it was difficult for all the BMWs today. Despite this, there was more in it for us with our car. Given the qualifying result, the fact that it is due to rain tomorrow is good news."

Facts and figures from Norisring:

Circuit / Date
Norisring, 29th June 2014

Laps / Distance
83 laps, 2.3 km

2014 Pole Position
Robert Wickens (CA), 47.883 seconds

2013 Winner
- (Mattias Ekström disqualified)

2013 Fastest Lap
Christian Vietoris (DE), 48.572 seconds

Drivers' Championship:
1. Marco Wittmann (50 points), 2. Mike Rockenfeller (31), 3. Edoardo Mortara (27), 4. Miguel Molina (26), 5. Adrien Tambay (26), 6. Christian Vietoris (25), 7. Bruno Spengler (23), 8. Mattias Ekström (20), 9. Augusto Farfus (14), 10. Paul di Resta (12), 11. Timo Glock (10), 12. Maxime Martin (8), 13. Martin Tomczyk (8), 14. Timo Scheider (8), 15. Jamie Green (6), 16. António Félix da Costa (4), 17. Gary Paffett (4), 18. Joey Hand (1)

Team Championship:
1. BMW Team RMG (58 points), 2. Audi Sport Team Abt (53), 3. Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline (46), 4. Audi Sport Team Phoenix (39), 5. Original-Teile Mercedes AMG (37), 6. BMW Team Schnitzer (31), 7. BMW Team RBM (15), 8. BMW Team MTEK (14), 9. Audi Sport Team Rosberg (6), 10. EURONICS / FREE MAN'S WORLD Mercedes AMG (4.)
 
Manufacturers' Championship:
1. Audi (144 points), 2. BMW (118), Mercedes-Benz (41)
 
2014 calendar:
4th May – Hockenheim (DE), 18th May – Oschersleben (DE), 1st June – Budapest (HU), 29th June – Norisring (DE), 13th July – Moscow (RU), 3rd August – Spielberg (AT), 17th August – Nürburgring (DE), 14th September – Lausitzring (DE), 28th September – Guangzhou (CN), 19th October – Hockenheim (DE)

About the DTM:
The German Touring Car Masters – DTM for short – is the most popular touring car series in the world. Last season, over 700,000 spectators flocked to renowned racetracks in Germany and around Europe to watch the ten races live. The series pits the three premium automobile manufacturers BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz against each other in a sporting contest. BMW fielded its first works teams from 1984 to 1992, during which time it claimed 49 race victories and won the Drivers' Championship on three occasions (1984, 1987 and 1989). In 2012, the manufacturer returned to the DTM with the BMW M3 DTM, three teams and six drivers. BMW promptly won five races and topped the driver, team and manufacturer standings at the end of the season. In 2013, BMW Motorsport managed to defend the Manufacturer's title with four teams and eight drivers. The 2014 DTM calendar once again consists of ten races. The schedule includes four trips abroad, to Budapest (HU), Spielberg (AT), Moscow (RU) and Guangzhou (CN). The season traditionally ends in Hockenheim (DE) on 19th October. TV station ARD is broadcasting each qualifying and every race live. Tickets for all the DTM races are available here: http://www.bmw-motorsport.com/en/fan-area/dtm-tickets.html