Reactions to the opening race of the 2015 DTM season.

Hockenheim (DE), 2nd May 2015. The opening race of the 2015 DTM season saw four BMW drivers finish in the points, with Maxime Martin (BE), Timo Glock (DE), Marco Wittmann (DE) and Augusto Farfus (BR) coming home seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth respectively. Read here what the BMW DTM drivers and BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt had to say after the first action of the new season.

Jens Marquardt (BMW Motorsport Director): “After a tough qualifying, we made the most of our situation in the race. We had a decent race pace and finished with four cars in the top ten to pick up a few points. An exciting race saw fantastic fightbacks from Maxime Martin, Timo Glock, Marco Wittmann and Augusto Farfus. Augusto made up 13 positions after his misfortune in qualifying, while Timo climbed from 20th to eighth. The format produced exactly what it promised: an intense qualifying and an exciting race with plenty of overtaking manoeuvres and a lot of fans. Looking ahead to tomorrow’s race day, we must learn from today’s qualifying, in particular, and analyse what happened very carefully. In this regard, we must make better use of the existing potential, in order to be better positioned going into the race.”

Maxime Martin (BMW Team RMG, 7th): “The race was very intense from the first corner to the last. The safety car periods made for a lot of action, and the fans will undoubtedly have enjoyed a great show. Seventh place is a good result for us, and earns us some valuable points. It is also a nice feeling to be the best-placed BMW driver. However, our opponents were better than us today. We have to acknowledge that. We will work hard to change that for the coming races.”

Timo Glock (BMW Team MTEK, 8th): “I think one or two people have yet to grasp that we have another race to drive tomorrow. What I witnessed out there was a crazy mess at times. I am ultimately happy with my result. Prior to the race, we said it would be a dream to score a point from that grid position. And here we are after finishing eighth. After such a poor qualifying, we could hardly have recovered better.”

Marco Wittmann (BMW Team RMG, 9th): “I was really flying on the first lap. That was great fun. I took a certain degree of risk and managed to work my way into seventh place. At first I was able to match the pace of the cars ahead of me pretty well. Then I fell away a bit. After the re-start I was involved in a collision with Mattias Ekström, who forced me off the track. That put me behind Maxime Martin. We were eventually able to rescue two points in ninth place.”

Augusto Farfus (BMW Team RBM, 10th): “I think we had a good race. The car was outstanding, and we tried to get the most out of it. Twenty third on the grid was obviously not the starting position we had hoped for, but I never gave up. I had really good pace during the race, which is a good sign for tomorrow.”

Bruno Spengler (BMW Team MTEK, 11th): “It was going well at first, but then I collided with Miguel Molina in the hairpin. After that I was hampered by the damage to my car’s aerodynamics. From then on it was just a case of trying to hang on in there and stay with the pace. Despite that, the car was still really good to drive. I climbed from 17th on the grid to finish 11th. That is okay, but it doesn’t score me any points. We must focus on tomorrow now.”

António Félix da Costa (BMW Team Schnitzer, 13th): “I had a very good first lap and was the second best BMW behind Marco Wittmann. However, I was then hit by Miguel Molina and spun off the track. That dropped me to the back of the field. I was able to make up a few positions after that. Mattias Ekström had fresh tyres at the end, so it was impossible to keep him behind me.”

Martin Tomczyk (BMW Team Schnitzer, DNF): “After the safety car period, my brakes were not yet perfect. I was in the slipstream of Lucas Auer and wanted to out-brake him. I was a bit later on the brakes and the rear axle locked immediately. After that I could only go straight ahead. I had no chance to rescue the situation. Up until then it had not been a bad race. I tried to keep out of all the skirmishes at the start, and managed that really well. I am obviously sorry that it came to that kind of incident, but that is ultimately part and parcel of motor racing.”

Tom Blomqvist (BMW Team RBM, DNF): “I immediately found myself in the middle of the battles. When we reached the second corner I was hit from behind, then someone drove into me from the left. The damage to both places was just too great. It is very disappointing, but the car was too seriously damaged to be able to continue the race. I am obviously disappointed. My start was simply not good enough.”

DTM standings.

Drivers’ Championship:

1. Jamie Green (25 points), 2. Pascal Wehrlein (18), Paul di Resta (15), Edoardo Mortara (12), Mike Rockenfeller (10), Nico Müller (8), Maxime Martin (6), Timo Glock (4), Marco Wittmann (2), Augusto Farfus (1).

Team Championship:

1. Audi Sport Team Rosberg (33 points), 2. gooix/Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG (18), 3. SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG (15), 4. Audi Sport Team Abt (12), 5. Audi Sport Team Phoenix (10), 6. BMW Team RMG (8), 7. BMW Team MTEK (4), 8. BMW Team RBM (1).

Manufacturers’ Championship:

1. Audi (55 points), 2. Mercedes-Benz (33), 3. BMW (13).

DTM statistics for the BMW Motorsport 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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