Bruno Spengler scored the first win of the 2017 season for the BMW M4 DTM in Race One at the Norisring street circuit in Germany on Saturday, July 1. BMW won again on Sunday as Maxime Martin—who had finished second to Spengler on Saturday—won a race punctuated by two safety-car periods and a red flag.
Spengler, starting third on a wet track, leapt into the lead before reaching turn one. As the track dried racers changed to slicks. Spengler struggled at first on slicks, but quickly regained poise, and held on to finish first ahead of Martin, who had started from the pole, and Audi racer Mattias Ekstrom. It was Spengler's first DTM win in four years. Three more BMW racers finished in the points; Marco Wittmann, Timo Glock, and Tom Blomqvist finished fourth, fifth, and sixth.
Spengler moved up at the beginning of race two, while, Blomqvist, who had started from the pole, fell back to sixth. Racers made their mandatory pit stops early; all six BMW runners had been in by the end of lap eight. Martin and Spengler moved into first and second after the second caution period, but Spengler soon fell back after contact with another car led to a puncture. The race was red flagged because of a collision between Mercedes’ Gary Paffett and Audi’s Mike Rockenfeller. Rockenfeller emerged with a broken left foot. After about a half hour under red the race was restarted with 25 minutes remaining. Martin held on for the win ahead of Mercedes’ Lucas Auer. Four more BMW racers scored points; Marco Wittmann finished fifth, Augusto Farfus was seventh, Tom Blomqvist was ninth, and Timo Glock was tenth.
BMW motorsport director Jens Marquardt said, “It was an epic weekend for us here at the Norisring. After finishing runner-up yesterday, Maxime claimed a great win today in an extremely exciting, eventful and at times chaotic race. I am incredibly proud of our team. We had five BMWs in the top ten and once again scored a lot of valuable points. A successful weekend, with the one-two yesterday, today’s success, and our 75th victory in the DTM. We will definitely be celebrating this evening. We hope Rocky makes a speedy recovery.”
The series runs again in Moscow on July 21-23.—Brian S. Morgan
