Timo Glock’s second-place finish in Race One and his fifth-place finish in Race Two kept him in the DTM drivers’ points lead after an eventful race weekend at the Lausitzring—a good weekend for BMW, with five BMW M4 DTMs finishing in the points on Saturday and four scoring points on Sunday.
Soon after an early safety-car period in Race One, Audi’s Rene Rast was clipped by another car and sent into a spectacular rollover. The race was red-flagged after the incident and went back to green with just twenty minutes remaining. After pit stops, Glock passed pole-sitter Lucas Auer for the lead, and then BMW’s Philipp Eng took over, getting past both Glock and Auer. But Mercedes’ Edoardo Mortara slipped past Eng and held on for the win, with Glock second and Eng third at the end. The other BMW racers in the points were Bruno Spengler in fifth, Marco Wittmann in seventh, and Augusto Farfus in tenth.
Rast was taken to the hospital for observation. He appeared to escape injury, but he was not released to race on Sunday.
In the Sunday race. Mercedes’ Gary Paffett took the lead from pole-sitter Philip Eng on lap four and led the rest of way. Marco Wittmann challenged Paffett late in the race, holding on to finish a close second. Other BMW racers scoring points were Glock in fifth, Eng in seventh, and Joel Eriksson in ninth.
Rudolf Dittrich, general manager of BMW Motorsport vehicle development, said afterward, “All the cars were within one second of one another in qualifying, which shows just how close the field is. The changes to the track layout paid off, and we saw more thrilling races and great battles here. It was a very good weekend overall for Philipp; he was on the podium yesterday and got his first pole position today. It was a shame that he wasn’t able to turn that good starting position into a better result, but he will be able to learn a lot from this race. In the second half of the race, Marco was the fastest out there. He worked his way through the field really well and fought hard for that podium spot. Timo also made up a few places to score some important points. We had five drivers in the top ten yesterday, and four today; that’s a good overall result for BMW. We have got plenty of momentum going into Budapest. Congratulations are also due to Gary Paffett and Mercedes on the win today.”
The Budapest rounds will be run on June 2 and 3.—Brian Morgan