Timo Glock has managed to transform pole position into victory in the first race of the DTM weekend in Zandvoort, Netherlands. The German has led a BMW triple-podium with his teammate, Marco Wittmann – second – and Maxime Martin – third.
Zandvoort, a circuit without a team that clearly dominates, but with the certainty that overtaking is very difficult here. This has meant that strategies have been more important than ever.
Timo Glock started on pole position and held this place ahead of Marco Wittmann and Maxime Martin, who left Augusto Farfus behind, in s start where Maro Engel went off track at Turn 7 and compromised his race.
Strategy became crucial from the beginning, with Mike Rockenfeller being the first to stop when not even a lap had been completed. The German, thanks to this early stop, managed to finish in fourth place, just behind the BMW of Glock, Wittmann and Martin, who managed to maintain the position, to achieve a one-two-three for the team.
The strategy has also favoured Jamie Green, who would finish fifth after trying to finish on the podium. Important position for the Brit, who consolidates his position in the fight for the championship.
In contrast, his Audi team-mate, René Rast, has suffered with the strategy. First, he has lost a lot of time trying to overtake Augusto Farfus – unsuccesfully – and has entered the pits later than normal, finishing ninth, which allows him to climb to the first position in the drivers’ championship thanks to Mattias Ekström’s DNF.
It has also been a terrible day for another title contender, Lucas Auer. The Austrian started the race down in the table and, despite a good strategy and comeback, a crash with Müller in the turn 7 has condemned him to the bottom of the table.
Augusto Farfus, despite the little initial pace shown in the race, has achieved the sixth position. The best Mercedes driver has been Paul Di Resta, followed by Gary Paffet, in the seventh and eighth position respectively. Nico Müller has completed the points zone.
As for the drivers’ championship, Rast leads the latter with a one-point advantage over Ekström. The championship is further compacted with 8 drivers being potential candidates. Auer is 15 points behind the leader, Glock 16, Green 17, Martin 22, Wittmann 25 and Rockenfeller 31.
Results:
1 Glock 2 Wittmann 3 Martin 4 Rockenfeller 5 Green 6 Farfus 7 Di Resta 8 Paffett 9 Rast 10 Müller 11 Wickens 12 Mortara 13 Duval 14 Spengler 15 Auer 16 Engel 17 Ekström 18 Blomqvist