Timo Glock best-placed BMW M4 DTM driver in Saturday’s race at Zolder.

Zolder. The DTM double-header at ‘Circuit Zolder’ (BEL) is underway. The best-placed BMW driver in the 13^th race of the 2020 season was Timo Glock (GER) in the iQOO BMW M4 DTM in fourth place. Sheldon van der Linde (RSA / Shell BMW M4 DTM) and Philipp Eng (AUT / ZF BMW M4 DTM) also picked up more points.

In a thrilling qualifying session on Saturday morning, Glock secured second place on the front row of the grid in damp conditions. The newly asphalted track was mostly dry by the time the race started. After position changes, Glock pulled off courageous overtaking manoeuvres once again, and was on course to finish on the podium up until lap 30 of 42. At that point he lost a position and dropped down into fourth, which he defended down to the wire.

Van der Linde initially dropped from sixth on the grid to P13, but then started working his way up the field into sixth place. The result saw the South African maintain fourth place in the DTM driver’s standings. Eng in ninth also finished in the points. Jonathan Aberdein (RSA / CATL BMW M4 DTM) was eleventh, immediately ahead of Lucas Auer (AUT / BMW Bank M4 DTM) in P12. Marco Wittmann (GER / Schaeffler BMW M4 DTM) was in a strong fifth place up until the final stages, but a gearbox problem forced him to return to the pits shortly before the end of the race.

Reactions to the 13^th DTM race of the 2020 season at Zolder.

Jens Marquardt (BMW Group Motorsport Director):

“In qualifying we did a good job in mixed conditions, and only just missed out on pole position with Timo Glock. We were very well-positioned with second, fourth, sixth and ninth on the grid, and improved our performance in qualifying considerably. The actual race wasn’t all that easy for us. You could see that we lost a bit of race pace and weren’t able to keep up with it for the whole stint. It’s a real shame that we only just missed out on the podium. Timo was so close, but his tyres just weren’t good enough anymore at the end. I feel really sorry for Marco Wittmann that he was unable to finish the race due to a gearbox problem. We need to look at things in more detail again for tomorrow to see if the strategies were right overall and then try to get everything out of qualifying while also maintain the pace in the race.”

Marco Wittmann (#11 Schaeffler BMW M4 DTM, BMW Team RMG, Grid: 4^th, Race: DNF, Drivers’ standings: 8^th, 86 points):

“It was a disappointing day for me in the end. You can’t ever be pleased after a DNF. Recent weekends have shown that the cars are extremely stable which makes it all the more disappointing that we were unable to get any more out of today due to the technical defect. The transmission was stuck in fifth gear and I couldn’t change it which is why I had to return to the pit. While we weren’t able to be up there fighting for the podium, we would have been good points for P5 or P6. Now we are focussing fully on tomorrow.”

Timo Glock (#16 iQOO BMW M4 DTM, BMW Team RMG, Grid: 2^nd, Race: 4^th, Driver’s standings: 7^th, 87 points):

“For sure, I would have been happy to be on the podium but it was clear to me that the Audis would have strong race pace. You could see that already yesterday in free practice. But in general I’m happy with P4; we’ve scored some good points but against the top three we are not strong enough at the moment. They are very good in terms of tyre management and that is where we are still struggling and need to improve. Tomorrow, we need the car to be again in the top three in qualifying because here it’s very important to be upfront as overtaking is difficult. That needs to be the target for tomorrow.”

Lucas Auer (#22 BMW Bank M4 DTM, BMW Team RMR, Grid: 9^th, Race: 12^th, Drivers’ standings: 12^th, 36 points):

“My qualifying was okay with ninth on the grid. In the race itself we pitted too late, which meant we were undercut a bit. To be honest, our pace wasn’t quite enough to get any more out of the race. We need to work on that and see that we make progress for tomorrow.”

Philipp Eng (#25 ZF BMW M4 DTM, BMW Team RBM, Grid: 11^th, Race: 9^th, Drivers’ standings: 10^th, 45 points):

“My race was exciting. I had a good start and a good first lap. We changed the car in a way that suited me much better than yesterday. Unfortunately, all the duels in the race meant I lost a lot of time. After I was overtaken off-track I got stuck behind Jamie Green for a few laps. Obviously that didn’t help us. Despite that I am pleased with the progress and hope that we will be able to build on it tomorrow.”

Jonathan Aberdein (#27 CATL BMW M4 DTM, BMW Team RMR, Grid: 14^th, Race: 11^th, Drivers’ standings: 13^th, 33 points):

“It was a really tricky race. It started already in qualifying when we qualified in P14 so we gambled on a safety car which I think was the best option from where we started but obviously it didn’t materialise so it was all about saving the tyres to the end. We will now try to analyse and make smart decisions for tomorrow.”

Sheldon van der Linde (#31 Shell BMW M4 DTM, BMW Team RBM, Grid: 6^th, Race: 6^th, Drivers’ standings: 4^th, 96 points):

“It was an eventful first race for me. I made a really good start and gained some positions but was stuck in the middle into turn one. That was very tricky and I just tried to stay out of trouble but in turn two I was pushed off into the gravel so I lost many positions as I almost completely spun the car. From then onwards we changed our strategy on the go and we had really good pace in the second stint. I drove all the way up to P6 in the end so I am very, very happy with this recovery, for sure, but still a bit disappointed as it could have been much more today because we were really competitive in the race. We are trying to keep the momentum going for tomorrow.”