Reactions to the 11th race of the 2015 DTM season.

Moscow (RU), 29th August 2015. Marco Wittmann (DE) and Bruno Spengler (CA) finished second and third to take their places on the podium after the first of two races at the “Moscow Raceway”. Rookie Tom Blomqvist (GB) was also in the points in eighth place. While António Félix da Costa (PT), Augusto Farfus (BR), Martin Tomczyk (DE) and Maxime Martin (BE) missed out on the top ten, Timo Glock was forced to retire after a collision while running in a promising position.

Read here what BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt and the eight BMW DTM drivers had to say after the 11th race of the season in Moscow.

Jens Marquardt (BMW Motorsport Director): “That was an exciting race with a great and fair battle at the head of the field. Marco Wittmann was able to defend his lead until just before the finish and ultimately came home in an impressive second place. Bruno Spengler fought his way onto the podium with a sensational overtaking manoeuvre on the final lap, like the one we saw at the Norisring. Tom Blomqvist also came away with some points following his best DTM qualifying result so far. It is a shame for Timo Glock, who was involved in a collision, through no fault of his own, which brought his race to a premature end. We are happy to have two cars on the podium and are looking forward to what we hope will be an equally exciting race tomorrow. Congratulations to Pascal Wehrlein and Mercedes-Benz on their win.”

Marco Wittmann (BMW Team RMG, 2nd place): “I had a good start and was initially able to defend my lead well. Unfortunately, I was not able to get outside the DRS window. When Pascal Wehrlein started to attack me, it was soon apparent that I would not have a chance against him. Even with the use of DRS once he had passed me, I was not able to go with him. Therefore, I am obviously happy with second place, even though I would obviously have preferred to have won from pole.”

Bruno Spengler (BMW Team MTEK, 3rd place): “I am very happy with the way the race panned out. I was able to close right in on Jamie Green, brake late and pass him on the final lap. It is obviously fantastic to pull off a manoeuvre like that in the final corner. That was great fun. This success, and the double podium, will give the mechanics and the entire BMW team an extra boost, particularly following the difficult races at the Red Bull Ring. I am already looking forward to qualifying and the race tomorrow.”

Tom Blomqvist (BMW Team RBM, 8th place): “I am obviously pleased to finish in the points. However, I started from fifth on the grid and finished eighth. With this in mind, the result is a bit disappointing. I lost ground at the start, but throughout the race, as soon as I fell outside the DRS window, I was lacking pace. That made it difficult to keep cars behind me. I picked up points for my eighth place, but on the whole we still have work ahead of us if we are going to improve for tomorrow.”

António Félix da Costa (BMW Team Schnitzer, 11th place): “I am pretty disappointed. We certainly have the potential to do better than 11th place. However, I could not do much better after a disappointing qualifying. Eleventh was about the best we could hope for. We must now focus on tomorrow and hope things turn out better for us.”

Augusto Farfus (BMW Team RBM, 15th place): “We basically lost the race in qualifying. I think our car had decent pace, but we did not find the perfect set-up in the battle for grid positions. It is obviously then difficult to battle through the field from towards the back of the grid. Despite this, I think we can achieve a far better result on Sunday.”

Martin Tomczyk (BMW Team Schnitzer, 17th place): “The race was pretty eventful. The crashes that caused the safety car periods looked pretty serious. I did not have the speed to match the front-runners in either qualifying or the race. We will have to look into why that is, with tomorrow’s race in mind.”

Maxime Martin (BMW Team RMG, 18th place): “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time in the race. I was forced off the track at the start and dropped to the back of the field. My race was basically over after that. Without these incidents, I could possibly have finished in the top ten, as the speed of my car was better in the race than it was in qualifying.”

Timo Glock (BMW Team MTEK, DNF): “Mattias Ekström’s manoeuvre came as a complete surprise to me. In my opinion, there is no way you can overtake in this corner. I did not expect him to be so aggressive at this point on the track. I suddenly felt an impact and was pushed off the track. I started the race from a good position, but somehow it is just not meant to be this year. Luck is simply not on our side.”

DTM standings.

Drivers’ Championship.

1. Pascal Wehrlein (119 points), 2. Mattias Ekström (111), 3. Edoardo Mortara (106), 4. Jamie Green (93), 5. Marco Wittmann (69), 6. Gary Paffett (67), 7. Bruno Spengler (67), 8. Robert Wickens (57), 9. Christian Vietoris (54), 10. António Félix da Costa (44), 11. Augusto Farfus (43), 12. Mike Rockenfeller (42), 13. Paul di Resta (40), 14. Maxime Martin (32), 15. Miguel Molina (27), 16. Timo Glock (25), 17. Daniel Juncadella (24), 18. Nico Müller (24), 19. Martin Tomczyk (20), 20. Timo Scheider (16), 21. Lucas Auer (10), 22. Tom Blomqvist (10), 23. Maximilian Götz (6), 24. Adrien Tambay (3).

Team Championship.

1. gooix/Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG (175 points), 2. Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline (138), 3. Audi Sport Team Rosberg (117), 4. Audi Sport Team Abt (109), 5. BMW Team RMG (101), 6. SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG (97), 7. BMW Team MTEK (92), 8. EURONICS/BWT Mercedes-AMG (77), 9. BMW Team Schnitzer (64), 10. Audi Sport Team Phoenix (58), 11. BMW Team RBM (53), 12. PETRONAS Mercedes-AMG (30).

Manufacturers’ Championship.

1. Mercedes-Benz (379 points), 2. Audi (360), 3. BMW (285).

 Statistics for the BMW DTM drivers.

2015 race calendar.

1st-3rd May – Hockenheim (DE), 29th-31st May – Lausitzring (DE), 26th-28th June – Norisring (DE), 10th-12th July – Zandvoort (NL), 31st July-2nd August – Spielberg (AT), 28th-30th August – Moscow (RU), 11th-13th September – Oschersleben (DE), 25th-27th September – Nürburgring (DE), 16th-18th October – Hockenheim (DE).

More information:
You can find the latest BMW Motorsport media information, DTM press kit, and copyright-free images for editorial purposes online at www.press.bmwgroup-sport.com.

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