Difficult qualifying at the Lausitzring: Bruno Spengler starts from fifth as the best-placed BMW driver.

Lausitzring (DE), 15th June 2013. After the one-two-three in Spielberg (AT), the BMW DTM teams endured a difficult qualifying ahead of the fourth race of the season at the Lausitzring (DE). Bruno Spengler (CA) was the best-placed BMW driver, qualifying fifth in the BMW Bank M3 DTM. The reigning DTM champion, driving for BMW Team Schnitzer, was just ten thousandths of a second off making it into the top-four qualifying. 

Augusto Farfus (BR) was also in action in Q3, at the wheel of the Castrol EDGE BMW M3 DTM. The BMW Team RBM man was tenth fastest. However, the 29-year-old is relegated five positions on the grid after using a set of tyres that was not nominated for his car during free practice. 

Dirk Werner (DE), Spengler’s BMW Team Schnitzer team-mate, bowed out of qualifying in Q2 after finishing 12th in the SAMSUNG BMW M3 DTM. Two places behind Werner, in 14th, was Timo Glock (DE) in the DEUTSCHE POST BMW M3 DTM. Both drivers move up a place on the grid due to Farfus’s relegation.

For four of the BMW drivers, qualifying was over after just 16 minutes. Martin Tomczyk (DE) returned his BMW M Performance Parts M3 DTM to the BMW Team RMG garage with a technical fault midway through Q1 and will start from the back of the field in 22nd, directly behind Marco Wittmann (DE, Ice-Watch BMW M3 DTM), Joey Hand (US, BMW M3 DTM) and Andy Priaulx (GB, Crowne Plaza Hotels BMW M3 DTM) in 19th, 20th and 21st respectively.

Jens Marquardt (BMW Motorsport Director):

“We are obviously not happy with this qualifying. The positive thing is Bruno Spengler still managed to qualify fifth, despite the difficulties we obviously had here at the Lausitzring. He missed out on Q4 by just ten thousandths of a second. Right from the outset, the set-up was not good. Because of this, we had to make pretty drastic changes, which worked better for some drivers than others. Congratulations to Mercedes-Benz and Christian Vietoris on pole position. This result is further evidence of just how evenly balanced the DTM is. You have to work hard for every success, and everything has to come together perfectly. If that is not the case, the opposition is ready to pounce immediately. However, tomorrow is another day.” 

Bruno Spengler (car number 1, BMW Team Schnitzer, 5th):

“We had problems finding the perfect set-up for our car today. Even in free practice we did not look particularly good. The shorter weekend leaves little time to make decisive modifications ahead of qualifying. However, my team did a great job. In the end I was not far off making it into Q4. Tomorrow is a new day. Fifth on the grid is a good position from which to attack. We’ll see what happens in the race. Congratulations to Christian Vietoris and his crew.” 

Augusto Farfus (car number 7, BMW Team RBM, 10th / 15th on the grid):

“We struggled a bit today, but I am sure our race pace will be better.  The race is long so I am still positive and looking forward to it. It is unfortunate about my five place grid penalty. A misunderstanding in free practice resulted in ususing the wrong tyres. It gave us no advantage at all, but that's part of the game. I now have to look forward and not backwards and think I can make up some positions and score some points.” 

Dirk Werner (car number 2, BMW Team Schnitzer, 12th / 11th on the grid:

“I did my best, but the car was very hard to drive today. It was close, but unfortunately I missed out on Q3, which is disappointing. However, we have seen often this season it is possible to make up a lot of ground in the race, and that is what I’ll be attempting to do.” 

Timo Glock (car number 22, BMW Team MTEK, 14th / 13th on the grid):

“That was not the qualifying we had hoped for. The car was very difficult to control over the many bumps. We improved since practice, but not enough. I now hope we are able to fight back in the race, as we did in Spielberg.” 

Marco Wittmann (car number 21, BMW Team MTEK, 19th):

“After the good form we have shown in the first three races of the season, I am obviously disappointed with my qualifying result. However, even after the recent successes I always stressed we must keep our feet on the ground and continue to work hard in order to remain competitive in the long term. We were not among the front-runners today, but we will not give up. We will fight hard to get a good result in the race.” 

Joey Hand (car number 8, BMW Team RMG, 20th):

“The car was very difficult to drive. We are having problems finding the right set-up for this track. It is now important to do our best to finish as far up the field as possible in the race.” 

Andy Priaulx (car number 16, BMW Team RMG, 21st):

“It was a tough session. It's a shame. I just didn't have grip. I think I put together a reasonable lap, but all I could do was P21. It is always easy to say this, but we need to understand what happened, look at the data and get some answers from there. It is not a particularly bad track for me, but the car is just not there whether I like the track or not.” 

Martin Tomczyk (car number 15, BMW Team RMG, 22nd):

“We had problems with the radiator, which we were obviously not able to repair in the short time available. The problem meant it was impossible for me to clock a decent lap time. That is just typical of the luck I’ve had so far this season. It is a real shame for the team and me.”

Facts and figures Lausitzring:    

Standings after 3 out of 10 races.  

Drivers’ standings.

1. Bruno Spengler (53 points), 2. Mike Rockenfeller (41), 3. Augusto Farfus (33),
4. Marco Wittmann (32), 5. Christian Vietoris (25), 6. Dirk Werner (22), 7. Gary Paffett (22), 8. Mattias Ekström (16), 9. Joey Hand (16), 10. Robert Wickens (15), 11. Timo Glock (15), 12. Timo Scheider (10), 13. Pascal Wehrlein (2), 14. Roberto Merhi (1).

Team standings.

1. BMW Team Schnitzer (75 points), 2. BMW Team RBM (49), 3. BMW Team MTEK (47), 4. Audi Sport Team Phoenix (41), 5. STIHL / AMG Mercedes (40), 6. EURONICS / THOMAS SABO Mercedes AMG (23), 7. Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline (16), 8. Audi Sport Team Abt (10), 9. stern / AMG Mercedes (2). 

Manufacturer standings.

1. BMW (171 points), 2. Audi (67), 3. Mercedes-Benz (65). 

2013 calendar.

5th May – Hockenheim (DE), 19th May – Brands Hatch (GB), 2nd June – Spielberg (AT), 16th June – Lausitzring (DE), 14th July – Norisring (DE), 4th August – Moscow (RU), 18th August – Nürburgring (DE), 15th September – Oschersleben (DE), 29th September – Zandvoort (NL), 20th October – Hockenheim (DE).