PressClub Middle East · Article.
BMW Motorsport News - Issue 13/2017.
Sun Apr 02 14:07:00 CEST 2017 Press Release
New changes announced for the 2017 DTM season – Alex Zanardi wins in Rome.
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Osama El-Sherif
BMW Group
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Author.
Osama El-Sherif
BMW Group
Whether in the DTM, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar
Championship, or countless other championships, week after week BMW
teams and drivers around the world do battle for points, victories
and titles. Away from the track, members of the large BMW Motorsport
family around the world are also creating headlines. The “BMW
Motorsport News” allows us to regularly summarise all the action for
you in a compact and informative manner. That way, you are always up
to speed.
DTM: Two races of equal length per weekend in
2017.
The changes for the coming DTM season, announced
this week, promise even more action and even more spectacle for
spectators to feast on. The two races, one on Saturday and one on
Sunday, will now be the same length. Each race will last 55 minutes
plus one lap. The sporting regulations also stipulate one mandatory
pit stop per race. Furthermore, the use of tyre blankets is no longer
permitted this season. As such, the drivers are now faced with the
challenge of getting their tyres up to optimal temperature as quickly
as possible. The number of crew members the teams can call on for pit
stops has also been reduced to eight mechanics, while only two wheel
guns are available per car and the stops can be taken at any time. The
2017 DTM season kicks off with the opening two races on 6th
and 7th May at the Hockenheimring (GER).
Blancpain GT Series: ROWE Racing in the points at
season-opener.
The ROWE Racing team enjoyed a successful
start to this season’s Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup this weekend in
Misano (ITA). The team improved session by session to end the weekend
with two points-finishes. Tom Blomqvist (GBR) and Philipp Eng (AUT)
started Saturday’s qualifying race from 25th place in the
number 99 BMW M6 GT3. Their team-mates Markus Palttala and Jesse Krohn
(both FIN) started from 28th but the quartet showed
admirable fighting spirit. Krohn and Palttala qualified tenth, while
Blomqvist and Eng secured 16th place on the grid for
Sunday’s main race. The two duos backed up Saturday’s performances and
both established themselves in the top ten shortly after the start.
Blomqvist and Eng ultimately came out just on top, finishing sixth
ahead of their team-mates Palttala and Krohn in seventh. This year’s
Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup consists of five events. The next races
will take place at Brands Hatch (GBR) on 6th and
7th May.
General:
Alessandro Zanardi celebrates sixth victory at the Rome Marathon
.
Successful Sunday with his handcycle in the
Italian capital: BMW works driver and BMW Brand Ambassador Alessandro
Zanardi (ITA) has again won the Rome Marathon. It was his sixth
victory at this prestigious event. For the first half of the race
conditions were dry but then torrential rain started, resulting in
very slippery streets. Despite the conditions, Zanardi crossed the
line after 1:10.06 hours as the winner. He was only 50 seconds slower
than last year, when he had set a new record time in completely dry
weather. “Halfway though the distance, all hell broke loose and it was
raining heavily until the finish line,” Zanardi reports. “But I am
extremely pleased with my performance. I was going very fast but it
was not easy to maintain that speed in the rain. Maybe it would have
been possible at events like the BMW Berlin Marathon, where the route
is flat and fast but in Rome with the tight turns and the cobblestones
it was like racing on ice so I had to slow down and the difficult
conditions cost me a lot of time. So overall I am really happy with my
result and with my sixth victory in Rome.” The Rome Marathon dates
back to 1995 and is one of the biggest marathon events in Europe.
British Touring Car Championship: Successful
season-opener at Brands Hatch
.
The West Surrey Racing team kicked off the new
season of the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) with a strong
overall showing this weekend. In race one on Sunday, Andrew Jordan and
Rob Collard (both GBR) came home sixth and seventh in their BMW 125i M
Sports, having started the race in eleventh and 15th place.
In contrast, Colin Turkington (GBR) endured a disappointing start to
the season. He was involved in a collision with another car on the
opening lap, and was consequently forced to retire. In race two,
Collard climbed into second place and was rewarded with a podium
finish on the first race weekend of the season. His team-mate Jordan
was also able to celebrate another top-ten result, finishing seventh.
However, probably the most impressive performance came from
Turkington: starting way down in a lowly 32nd place, the
35-year-old battled his way through the majority of the field and was
rewarded for his efforts with tenth place. Race three produced the
ideal end to a perfect opening weekend in the BTCC. After a thrilling
battle at the head of the field, Jordan eventually came home ahead of
team-mate Turkington to take victory. Collard crossed the finish line
sixth after 24 laps of racing to complete an outstanding team
performance. The second race weekend of the season takes the drivers
and teams to Donington (GBR) on 15th and 16th April.
24h Silverstone: Nine BMW cars finish.
A total
of nine BMW cars successfully came through this weekend’s 24-hour race
in Silverstone (GBR). The QSR team finished sixth overall with the BMW
M235i Racing. It was enough to give them victory in the Cup1 class.
The overall standings featured another BMW, in the form of the
Securtal Sorg Rennsport BMW M235i Racing, which came home eighth to
earn second place in the Cup1 class. They were followed in third and
fourth place by the JJ Motorsport and DUWO Racing teams. In the
SP3-GT4 class, Moss Motorsport UK took the class victory with its BMW
M3. Intersport Racing finished third in the same class with a BMW M3
CSL. Cor Euser Racing rounded off a successful weekend for the BMW M3,
finishing third in the A3 class.