Timo Glock drove the #16 M4 DTM to win the Sunday race at the German Touring Car championship (DTM) season-opener at Hockenheim. He had finished third in the first race on Saturday.
Glock battled with Mercedes’ Gary Paffett during the second half of Sunday’s race; the two drivers ran side by side and swapped the lead on several occasions. Audi’s Mike Rockenfeller got by Paffett for second on the final lap; Paffett finished third, ahead of BMW’s Joel Erickson, who scored points on his first weekend in DTM. Bruno Spengler (eighth) and Augusto Farfus (tenth) also finished in the points for BMW.
Paffett had won Saturday’s race ahead of Lucas Auer in another Mercedes, with Glock third. Spengler finished in the points in sixth. Mercedes won the first race in what it has announced would be its final year in the series.
BMW’s Marco Wittman, who had qualified second for Saturday’s race, struggled for pace all weekend, and finished eleventh both days. BMW’s Philip Eng, new to DTM this season, finished sixteenth on Saturday and fourteenth on Sunday.
Glock said afterward, “That was the coolest race of my life—I’m still lost for words. I might have won the race, but the real winner today is the DTM. That was incredible motorsport—exactly what we want to give the fans. The duel with Gary reminded me of a battle between two boxers in the ring; it was a tough but very fair battle. For us, the podium on Saturday and the pole position and win today meant we had a fantastic opening weekend.”
The DTM series runs again on May 18-20 at the Lausitzring.—Brian Morgan
