Defending champion BMW only began to lurch after its double success at the DTM opener in hockenheim. Like the strong strategy, however, this was also planned: brazilian augusto farfus slid across the asphalt in his green car and cheered over the radio.
And because dirk werner had raced from 20th on the grid to second place on sunday, BMW motorsport boss jens marquardt’s joy knew no bounds: "it’s amazing!! From the very front and the very back to first and second place, that’s the ultimate," he said on ARD. "Five bmws in the top ten – that’s a great result."
The balance sheet of the car manufacturer from munich was somewhat clouded by the absence of newcomer timo glock. The former formula 1 driver lost the right rear wheel after his second pit stop in the german touring car masters. "That’s a rookie mistake and should only happen once," said marquardt.
Mercedes took third place for christian vietoris and fourth for last year’s runner-up gary paffett. "The performance of some cars slumped somewhat unexpectedly on the hard tires," analyzed motorsport boss toto wolff after his DTM premiere at the control stand. Vietoris, however, was happy after his best result: "the weekend went almost perfectly for me."
Quite the opposite of audi’s. Behind defending champion bruno spengler (BMW) in fifth place, timo scheider was the best driver from ingolstadt in sixth place – although the two-time champion started the 192.108 kilometers from pole position. "This is a disappointing race result for us," was the verdict of new audi DTM boss dieter gass. "If you go through the cars, we can find something that didn’t work in almost all of them."
Before the red light went out, the suspense was high as to what effect the new folding rear wings and the option tires would have on the course of the race. The answer: a rough one. "It was really hard to keep track," vietoris said of the numerous position changes on the track. "You never knew exactly who you were competing with at any given time. I think the race was fantastic," farfus also praised the changes – despite the confusion.
In particular, the slicks with the softer rubber compound were an unknown quantity for the teams. Despite this, twelve of the 22 drivers opted for the faster tires right from the start – and took the risk of not being able to use valuable kilometers on the option tires, which only have a limited service life, due to an early safety car phase.
After adrien tambay’s audi caught fire in the fifth round and was standing on the side of the track smoking heavily, the safety car actually had to pull out of the race. Four laps later the race was open again – and the youngest driver in DTM history at 18 years and 199 days, pascal wehrlein, was suddenly the front runner in his mercedes. But the tire poker didn’t work out, and in the end the car finished eleventh – and audi missed the opportunity to change the tire. "We have made a wrong decision. In the end, it’s just bad luck," said scheider about the cause of his fall from grace.
Behind wehrlein, glock had moved up to second position in the meantime. First a trip into the gravel bed threw him back, then finally the mistake during the tire change. "We just made a mistake as a new team at the first pit stop," glock put the mishap into perspective. "I was in the top ten after the first lap, that wasn’t such a bad start."But even without the marketing powerhouse, the race continued to provide great entertainment.