Farfus and Spengler start from second row for BMW in Moscow

Moscow (RU) - Augusto Farfus (BR) and Bruno Spengler (CA) will start the first ever DTM race in Moscow (RU) from third and fourth on the grid. Farfus clocked the third fastest time of 58.677 seconds driving the Castrol EDGE BMW M3 DTM in Q3 at the “Moscow Raceway”. Spengler was just behind him in fourth in the BMW Bank M3 DTM.

The fourth and decisive qualifying session had to be cancelled, as a flying ban issued at short notice meant the rescue helicopter no longer had permission to take off. Because of this, the result of the third qualifying session was used as the basis for assigning grid positions. The Q4 shoot-out had to be scrapped. Therefore, pole position went to Audi driver Mike Rockenfeller (DE). Dirk Werner (DE) could also be happy with his good result. Driving the SAMSUNG BMW M3 DTM, Werner actually clocked the fastest time of Q2. In the third session he narrowly missed out on the top four by less than one tenth of a second, and will start Sunday’s race from sixth on the grid. Joey Hand (US) qualified 15th in the BMW M3 DTM.

For four BMW drivers qualifying was over after the first session. Timo Glock (DE) starts from 17th, but was just 0.039 seconds away from progressing to Q2 in the DEUTSCHE POST BMW M3 DTM. Martin Tomczyk (DE, BMW M Performance Parts M3 DTM), Marco Wittmann (DE, Ice-Watch BMW M3 DTM) and Andy Priaulx (GB, Crowne Plaza Hotels BMW M3 DTM) were 19th, 20th and 21st respectively.

The race gets underway at 15:30 local time (12:30 BST) on Sunday, with 74 laps around the “Moscow Raceway” awaiting the eight BMW DTM drivers.

Jens Marquardt (BMW Motorsport Director): “That was an unusual qualifying on our debut here in Russia. It goes without saying we would also have liked to have seen Q4 happening, with two of our drivers fighting for pole position. However, we are basically happy with the result. After the problems we encountered during the last couple of qualifyings, we have put ourselves in a good position here for Sunday.

Augusto Farfus, Bruno Spengler and Dirk Werner recorded some good laps. Some of our BMW M3 DTMs were also knocked out too early on in the proceedings. We will have to take a closer look at that. Congratulations to Audi and Mike Rockenfeller. We are now looking forward to an exciting race tomorrow.”

Augusto Farfus (car number 7, BMW Team RBM, 3rd): “I am happy to be in third, especially after my two last race weekends when we could not perform as we wanted. In practice we tried several directions, exploring the best way to set the car up for the track. Then after free practice we made some very big changes to the car, and it paid off. I think tomorrow we just have to get a clean start. I am sure the first lap will be very crowded, as the track is not that wide.”

Bruno Spengler (car number 1, BMW Team Schnitzer, 4th): “It is a strange feeling not to have been able to drive in Q4. It is a fundamental part of race weekends, and who knows where we would have ended up. As it is, we start from fourth. That was not an easy day for us, as we did not find the ideal set-up. Despite this, the second row of the grid is still a good starting position, from which anything is possible. We battled hard today – and we will do the same again tomorrow.”

Dirk Werner (car number 2, BMW Team Schnitzer, 6th): “I guess you could say I have mixed feelings. I don’t know whether I should be pleased or frustrated. That is the first time I have made it through to Q3 this season. Sixth is a good starting position, and with Bruno Spengler in fourth we have achieved a good result with BMW Team Schnitzer. However, I could have done even better. I clocked the fastest time of all in Q2. It was then tricky to put together a flying lap in the third session. I was not far from finishing further up the field. Generally speaking, however, we are in a very good position for tomorrow.”

Joey Hand (car number 8, BMW Team RMG, 15th): “The car wasn’t that bad earlier today, but I just couldn’t get anything out of it in qualifying. It was really weird, as I don't know what is going on. We always run well in practice, but just can’t qualify that well. That is really frustrating, especially as I have a fast car in the race every week. It is not over though, as I came out of turn one in 22nd at the Norising and still fought back to finish seventh.”

Timo Glock (car number 22, BMW Team MTEK, 17th): “Generally speaking, qualifying did not turn out as we had hoped for us. My car was far better than in the morning’s free practice, but we could do no better than 17th. I was very unlucky, as I kept getting stuck in traffic and never really had a clear lap. This made it impossible to clock a better time.”

Martin Tomczyk (car number 15, BMW Team RMG, 19th): “Unfortunately this qualifying was once again very disappointing for me. We struggled in the free practice and that carried through to qualifying. We once again failed to get the most out of the tyres.”

Marco Wittmann (car number 21, BMW Team MTEK, 20th): “It was a disappointing qualifying for us. We are really struggling at the moment. I cannot say why exactly. We don’t have a lot of time for practice, so everything has to come together right from the start. You hardly have any time to make any significant modifications to the car. We’ll see what we can do from 20th in tomorrow’s race. It will be extremely difficult though.”

Andy Priaulx (car number 16, BMW Team RMG, 21st): “I am happy overall with my car and the way it feels, but we just weren’t quick enough. There is nothing more I could have done with the grip. I wasn’t really any quicker on fresh tyres than I was on the old ones. That was a disappointing qualifying for me.”

BMW