Racing News

Martin Tomczyk in the #77 BMW Team Schnitzer M4 DTM finished fourth on Sunday in the second DTM race of the weekend at Hockenheim. In race one on Saturday Maxime Martin finished seventh in the #36 Team RMG M4.

The event marked the debut of DTM’s new two-race-per-weekend format. Saturday’s race was a 40-minute sprint with no stop required while Sunday’s race was a one hour sprint with a mandatory pit stop.

BMW played catch up in Saturday’s race; Audi’s Jamie Green won ahead of a pair of Mercedes driven by Pascal Werhlein and Paul Di Resta. The four BMWs finishing in the points were Martin in seventh, Timo Glock (Team MTEK) eighth, defending champion Marco Wittmann (Team RMG) ninth, and Augusto Farfus (Team RBM) tenth. Farfus had qualified third, but he had to start from the back of the grid because his car was too low on fuel at the end of the qualifying session.

Wittmann, who started third in race two, held the early lead, but Audi’s Mattias Ekström, who would go on to win, passed him on the fourth lap. Rain began nine laps into the 35-lap race, prompting stops for wet weather tires. Both Tomczyk and Wittmann ran in the top five; Tomczyk got by the defending champion on lap 23, and ran in third until Mercedes’ Gary Paffett passed him on lap 28. Tomczyk motored on to finish fourth ahead of fifth-place Wittmann. Two more BMWs finished in the points; Team MTEK’s Bruno Spengler was ninth and his teammate Timo Glock was tenth.

Tomczyk said, “That was one of my most exhausting races. I had a few problems with the tire pressure in the rain. That is why I was unable to hang on to a podium position and had to let Gary Paffett through. We had a good, fair fight. Congratulations to him and the winner Mattias Ekström. They were simply faster than me today. Despite that, I am very happy with fourth place.”

The series runs again at the Lausitzring on May 29-31.—Brian S. Morgan