Maxime Martin finishes fourth in Saturday’s race at the Lausitzring to score points for the BMW Team RBM.

Lausitzring. Maxime Martin (BEL) finished fourth in Saturday’s DTM race at the Lausitzring (GER), scoring his first points of the 2017 season. He was the best-placed BMW driver in qualifying and started the third race of the year from third place in his SAMSUNG BMW M4 DTM. After 43 laps, he crossed the finishing line in fourth place. The remaining BMW drivers missed out on the top ten.

Qualifying:
Maxime Martin had no problems dealing with conditions that had cooled down considerably compared with Friday, recording a personal best time of 01:16.404 minutes to secure third place in his SAMSUNG BMW M4 DTM for which he was rewarded with one point in the drivers’ championship. Timo Glock (GER, DEUTSCHE POST BMW M4 DTM) and Tom Blomqvist (GBR, BMW Driving Experience M4 DTM) also produced strong performances in qualifying, claiming fifth and sixth places respectively. Marco Wittmann (GER) finished in eleventh position in the Red Bull BMW M4 DTM, just missing out on a place in the top 10. Augusto Farfus (BRA, Shell BMW M4 DTM) and Bruno Spengler (CAN, BMW Bank M4 DTM) finished in 15^th and 18^th places respectively, but started the race from 14^th and 17^th due to the demotion of Jamie Green (GBR, Audi).

The race:

Maxime Martin started well from third place and was able to defend his position in the early stages. He was even able to progress to second place for a while. After making his pit stop just before the halfway point of the race, Martin remained on course for a podium finish. However, in the final third he was unable to prevent Robert Wickens (CAN, Mercedes) and René Rast (GER, Audi) from overtaking. Timo Glock and Tom Blomqvist looked set to finish in the points before suffering setbacks. Blomqvist spun after contact in a battle with Paul di Resta (GBR, Mercedes) and fell back a long way. As a result, the Mercedes driver received a drive-through penalty. Glock got into difficulty just after his pit stop and lost places after sliding into the gravel trap. Glock finished the race in eleventh place, just ahead of Farfus, Wittmann and Spengler. After his involvement in an accident through no fault of his own, Blomqvist finished in 17^th position.

The reactions:

BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt: “It was a tough race today. It’s a shame that Maxime didn’t make it onto the podium. He tried his best and recorded the best possible result. It is really annoying for Tom to be turned by Paul di Resta. I think everyone now knows that you have to be careful with cold tyres. Something went wrong with Timo’s pit stop and we have to take a closer look at that. The DTM is so close that it is always difficult when things don’t run smoothly. Having just one car in the top 10, in fourth place, is not enough. We’ll take that result though, and make sure that we do better tomorrow. Congratulations to Mercedes on their win.”

Stefan Reinhold (team principal, BMW Team RMG): “We will analyse how we can do better tomorrow. Of course we are disappointed with how things went today. Timo was able to compete at the front during the first stint. He had some problems after the pit stop, but he was back on the pace later. Now we have to search for the cause of the problems. Tomorrow is a new day, and we want to go on the attack again.”

Marco Wittmann (#11, Red Bull BMW M4 DTM – Grid position: 11^th, race result: 13^th – 59 races, 8 wins, 16 podiums, 8 pole positions, 539 points, 2 Drivers’ titles): “It was a disappointing race for me and some of the other BMW drivers, but not for Maxime as he was able to claim fourth place. The others were just better than me today, they had less tyre wear and a better pace. Of course it is annoying that we didn’t finish in the points and it was a difficult day in general for BMW. Now we have to look and see where we can improve tomorrow.”

Augusto Farfus (#15, Shell BMW M4 DTM – Grid position: 14^th, race result: 12^th – 69 races, 4 wins, 12 podiums, 5 pole positions, 345 points): “It was an intense race. We just didn’t have the pace required to make progress. In the end, it was about staying in the group and trying to score a few points. That didn’t quite work out but I was able to make up some places. I think we did collect some important information that will help us tomorrow.”

Timo Glock (#16, DEUTSCHE POST BMW M4 DTM – Grid position: 5^th, race result: 11^th – 59 races, 3 wins, 6 podiums, 2 pole positions, 238 points): “The start was actually OK and everything felt fine for the first few laps. At some point, we started to struggle with the tyres. I think we just stayed out too long but you can’t do much about that. After the pit stop, the car didn’t want to steer to the right and I had to go through the gravel. I have no idea what caused that. After that, the vibrations were causing me issues. It's a shame that we weren’t able to finish in the points today.”

Bart Mampaey (team principal, BMW Team RBM): “It was difficult for Bruno to start from the back but he produced a good race performance. We tried out a different strategy with him but it didn’t pay off. Bruno did his job well and was still there for BMW at the end. We will try to improve the car for tomorrow and challenge for better placing. As for Tom: what can I say? He was hit by another car that came out of the pits on cold tyres. It’s a big shame as he was in a top 10 position and was doing well. Maxime’s fourth place feels like a win today. He drove a great race. The strategy was fine but we will try to do better overall tomorrow.”

Bruno Spengler (#7, BMW Bank BMW M4 DTM – Grid position: 17^th, race result: 14^th – 142 races, 14 wins, 45 podiums, 17 pole positions, 760 points, 1 Drivers’ title): “It was just a bad day for us. We have a lot of work to do to improve the car for tomorrow. Qualifying was difficult enough and things didn’t improve in the race. We will now work hard to prepare for tomorrow.”

Tom Blomqvist (#31, BMW Driving Experience M4 DTM – Grid position: 6^th, race result: 17^th – 39 races, 1 win, 5 podiums, 1 pole position, 172 points): “It was a race to forget for me. I was in sixth place before my pit stop. One lap after my stop, Paul di Resta came out of the pit lane on cold tyres. I knew that it could get tight on turn four and I tried to leave plenty of room. He had some understeer and turned me, even though I had left enough space. I was in last place after that and couldn’t do anything else.”

Maxime Martin (#36, SAMSUNG BMW M4 DTM – Grid position: 3^rd, race result: 4^th – 49 races, 2 wins, 6 podiums, 2 pole positions, 244 points): “It was a tough race for BMW. I did my best but the other teams just had too much pace in the race. It was difficult to combat that. I was hoping for a podium finish, and I wasn’t far off. But in the end, it wasn’t quite enough. Nonetheless: I am happy to have scored some points again. Now we have to work hard for tomorrow even though I think that it will be difficult again.”

The standings:

Drivers: 1. Lucas Auer (68 points), 2. Gary Paffett (34), 3. Mike Rockenfeller (31), 4. Jamie Green (27), 5. Timo Glock (25), 6. René Rast (25), 7. Robert Wickens (20), 8. Edoardo Mortara (19), 9. Marco Wittmann (16), 10. Mattias Ekström (14), 11. Maxime Martin (13), 12. Nico Müller (12), 13. Paul di Resta (12), 14. Maro Engel (3), 15. Bruno Spengler (2), 16. Augusto Farfus (0), 17. Tom Blomqvist (0), 18. Loic Duval (0).

Teams: 1. Mercedes-AMG Motorsport BWT (87 points), 2. Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Mercedes me (54), 3. Audi Sport Team Rosberg (52), 4. Audi Sport Team Phoenix (31), 5. Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline (26), 6. BMW Team RMR (25), 7. BMW Team RMG (16), BMW Team RBM (15), 9. Mercedes-AMG Motorsport SILBERPFEIL Energy (15).

Manufacturers: 1. Mercedes (156 points), 2. Audi (109), 3. BMW (56).

The service:

BMW Motorsport will offer an innovative Chatbot service for journalists for the first time in the 2017 DTM season. This allows users to receive the latest information directly to their smartphone via WhatsApp Messenger. The information available includes driver statistics, statements and photos. You can register for the BMW Motorsport Chatbot at the following link: http://bit.ly/BMW_Motorsport_Media_Broadcast_EN