Zandvoort DTM: Glock holds off Wittmann for victory
Timo Glock scored his first win of the 2017 DTM season in Saturday's first race at Zandvoort, narrowly holding off BMW teammate Marco Wittmann and leading a podium sweep for the Bavarian marque.
Photo by: Mario Bartkowiak
After leading an all-BMW top four in qualifying, Glock made a strong getaway from pole to hold an early lead ahead of stablemates Wittmann, Maxime Martin and Augusto Farfus.
The top three soon began to pull clear of the rest as Farfus acted as tail gunner for the lead trio, the Brazilian frustrating the advances of lead Audi driver Rene Rast.
That was how the order up front stayed until the leaders pitted, with Wittmann and Martin coming into change tyres on lap 7, followed by Glock a lap later and Farfus another lap after that.
Rast therefore inherited the lead ahead of Audi teammate Loic Duval, the pair both choosing to leave their stops until much later in the race, on laps 18 and 27 respectively.
Last to pit was BMW driver Bruno Spengler two laps after Duval, at which point Glock resumed the lead narrowly ahead of Wittmann, Martin and Mike Rockenfeller, who had stopped on the opening lap.
Rockenfeller was unable to break the BMW monopoly on the top three positions after spending many laps bottled up behind Martin, and let Audi stablemate Jamie Green through late on.
But Green similarly couldn't make an impression on the BMWs, and ended up giving the place back to Rockenfeller on the last lap as Glock took the chequered flag from Wittmann and Martin.
Sixth went to Farfus, followed by top Mercedes driver Paul di Resta, who spent many laps holding up Rast after the German made his pitstop.
Having passed Gary Paffett's Mercedes on fresh tyres, Rast dropped back behind the Briton and into ninth due to a late mistake.
Another Audi driver, Nico Muller staved off a late assault by Mercedes pair Robert Wickens and Edoardo Mortara to secure the final point in 10th.
Duval, who was hit by a five-second penalty for jumping the start, could do no more than 13th.
Mercedes title contender Lucas Auer was 15th after running off track in the early stages, coming home one place ahead of Maro Engel, who ran into the gravel on the opening lap.
Mattias Ekstrom was another driver to find the gravel, doing so at Tarzan after an early stop before spinning, and eventually retired with a handful of laps to go after getting a puncture.
BMW driver Tom Blomqvist, who joined Rockenfeller by pitting on the first tour, also retired in the pits.
Glock's victory promotes him to fourth in the championship on 98 points, 16 behind new leader Rast, who is now one ahead of Ekstrom.
Race results:
Pos. | Driver | Car | Time/Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Timo Glock | BMW M4 DTM | 57'18.491 |
2 | Marco Wittmann | BMW M4 DTM | 0.178 |
3 | Maxime Martin | BMW M4 DTM | 0.840 |
4 | Mike Rockenfeller | Audi RS5 DTM | 2.530 |
5 | Jamie Green | Audi RS5 DTM | 3.164 |
6 | Augusto Farfus | BMW M4 DTM | 4.173 |
7 | Paul di Resta | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 4.771 |
8 | Gary Paffett | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 5.382 |
9 | René Rast | Audi RS5 DTM | 5.911 |
10 | Nico Müller | Audi RS5 DTM | 6.278 |
11 | Robert Wickens | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 6.734 |
12 | Edoardo Mortara | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 7.929 |
13 | Loic Duval | Audi RS5 DTM | 13.880 |
14 | Bruno Spengler | BMW M4 DTM | 21.214 |
15 | Lucas Auer | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 27.053 |
16 | Maro Engel | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 52.140 |
17 | Mattias Ekström | Audi RS5 DTM | - |
18 | Tom Blomqvist | BMW M4 DTM | - |
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments