Lucas Auer in the #22 BMW M4 DTM finished third in the Sunday DTM race at Zolder in Belgium. Timo Glock, who had started from BMW’s first DTM pole of the season, followed Auer across the line in fourth. Glock also finished fourth on Saturday behind a trio of Audis.
Sheldon van der Linde in sixth and Philipp Eng in ninth also finished in the points in the Saturday race. Marco Wittmann was running in fifth late in the race until he was forced to retire with a gearbox problem. The win went to Audi’s René Rast.
Rast shot by Glock and van der Linde, who had qualified second, at the start of Sunday’s race. Glock went off course early after a collision, but recovered over the course of the race. Rast went on to win ahead of Audi racer Mike Rockenfeller, Auer, and Glock. Wittmann in eighth and van der Linde in tenth also scored points for BMW.
BMW motorsport director Jens Marquardt said, “This weekend’s second race at Zolder was a real emotional rollercoaster. We had a great qualifying. Congratulations to Timo Glock and Sheldon van der Linde on the first all-BMW front row of the season. Unfortunately, the start did not run smoothly. We need to take a closer look at why our starts were not so good this weekend. The first lap was a bit chaotic, and Timo found himself way behind at the back of the field after a collision. The safety car then promoted our two cars that had come in early because they were well down the field. Towards the end, they obviously really struggled on older tires which is why they were unable to attack the cars in front anymore. However, third place for Lucas Auer and fourth for Timo was a well-deserved result. After the safety car, the field was split in two. Marco Wittmann was able to hold his ground in the end, and managed to stay ahead of Nico Müller. We probably could have done better, but the conditions were the same for everyone. I think we gained valuable experience this weekend and laid a good foundation for Zolder II. The qualifying performance can stay as it was, but we are obviously hoping for a better start and a race without an appearance from the safety car. We will push hard again.”
DTM returns to Zolder for two more races on October 17–18.—Brian Morgan
[Photo courtesy BMW Motorsport.]
