It looks like BMW is back to its winning ways in the
DTM but its nearest rival Audi has got its own back with a trio of 24-Hour race
wins this year
When we last reported on how BMW
was faring in the DTM we reckoned that it was finding the going increasingly
tough this season and that while Marco Wittman was leading the driver's
championship he was going to find it increasingly difficult to hold off a
gaggle of chasing Audi drivers. They say a week is a long time in politics but
a month appears to be even longer in motorsport as BMW is on the up in the DTM.
It looks like BMW
is back to its winning ways in the DTM but its nearest rival Audi has got its
own back with a trio of 24-Hour race wins this year
Rising BMW works driver Maxime
Martin was the star of the show when the DTM circus visited Russia to do battle
in Moscow as not only did he bag pole for BMW Team RMG he also took the race
win and was accompanied on the podium by Bruno Spengler in one of the Schnitzer
cars which he brought home in second place. While a one-two is an impressive
achievement in the fiercely contested DTM this paled into insignificance after
the sixth round of the championship at the Red Bull Ring in Austria where BMW
achieved a stunning one-two-three-four finish!
The last time BMW occupied all
top-four positions at the end of a DTM race was at the finale of the 1992
season at the Hockenheimring where it went one better with five E30 M3s taking
the top five positions. Back then the drivers were Roberto Ravaglia, Johnny
Cecotto, Joachim Winkelhock, Franz Engstler and Emanuele Pirro - a veritable
who's who of Touring Car racing.
After
20-year absence from DTM, BMW returned this year and won the exciting racing
championship.
Fast forward 22 years and the
drivers were Marco Wittman, Augusto Farfus, Timo Glock and Martin Tomczyk,
bringing a total haul of 71 points for BMW - more than at any other race since
making its comeback in the DTM in 2012. No wonder BMW Motorsport Director, Jens
Marquardt, was so delighted: 'This is a historic success for us today - the
first time we have occupied all of the top four positions since Hockenheim in
1992, and the best result since our return to the series. It was a sensational
race from Marco Wittmann, Augusto Farfus, Timo Glock and Martin Tomczyk - one
driver from each of the four teams in the BMW M4 DTM. A huge compliment goes to
the entire team, who produced an absolutely top-class performance."
BMW
DTM fielded its first works teams from 1984 to 1992, during which time it
claimed 49 race victories and won the Drivers’ Championship on three occasions
(1984, 1987 and 1989).
These results mean that BMW has
now won four of the six rounds of the DTM and Wittman now has a lead of 39
points over Mattias Ekstrom's Audi while BMW now tops Audi in both the Teams
and Manufacturers categories, too. However, while it looks like BMW may well be
on for more glory in the DTM - let's face it, a series no one outside of
Germany is all that bothered by - in Europe's major 24-Hour events Audi is
firmly kicking BMW's backside.
