It was quite a dramatic Sunday ind Zandvoort when Round 12 of this years DTM Championship was run.
There was a melee already in the qualifying session. Yesterday’s winner, Timo Glock, felt impeded by Edoardo Mortara, and instead of taking it to the stewards, he decided to take a revenge himself and braked hard in front of Mortara and blocked him for the rest of the lap, while shouting “Fucking idiot” over the team radio, and later gave Mortara the middle finger in the pits. That kind of behaviour wasn’t acceptable for Race Control, so they disqualified Glock from the Qualifying and gave him a 3000 Euro fine for unsporting behaviour.
Gary Paffett would start the race second to last, since he had used unregistered tires in the Qualifying.
At the front of the field, it was once more a BMW party, with Augusto Farfus on Pole Position ahead of Marco Wittmann and Maxime Martin. They were followed by a line of Audi drivers with Jamie Green, Rene Rast and Mike Rockenfeller, before BMW man Bruno Spengler jumped into P7 ahead of the two Mercedes guys, Maro Engel and Robert Wickens.
Tom Blomqvist went off the circuit on the Formation Lap and had to dive into the pits to get a new door. He was awarded with a drive-through penalty, since he had taken a shortcut on the way back to the pits.
That wasn’t the only drama at the start of the race, since Maxime Martin stalled on the starting grid, and everybody behind him had to avoid him. Luckily everybody made it past, and he could start the race and second-to-last.
Marco Wittmann took the lead at the start, and at the end of the first lap we saw Farfus, Spengler, Lucas Auer and Paul Di Resta do their mandatory pitstop
Bruno Spengler made a jump start that gave him a 5 seconds pitstop penalty.
On the second lap we had both Robert Wickens and Jamie Green pitting at the same time, and on the way out of the pits they were very close at crashing into each other.
Augusto Farfus tried a hopeless overtaking manoeuvre on Jamie Green, but other than some slight bodywork damage, nothing ells happened and both could go on.
Wickens and Green continued their battle on the track where Green tried to overtake Wickens at the chicane. There was a contact between the two car going into the chicane, and Wickens then decided to fight back and turn around Green on the exit of the chicane. Green lost several positions and Wickens got a puncture after the collision.
It was all arms and elbows in the middle of the field, when Tom Blomqvist, Maro Engel and Rene Rast came into contact with each other. That resulted in so much damage to Rast’s car and he had to park the car in the pit.
There was no damage to Engel’s car and he made a super overtaking manouvre on Blomqvist on the following lap, round the outside in Turn 1.
On lap 13 we saw Wittmann drive into the pits and leave again, still leading all the other guys who had been in for their stop.
Mattias Ekström made a good outbraking manoeuvre on Blomqvist into Turn 1, and Nico Müller went past too.
Mike Rockenfeller came out right behind Marco Wittmann after his pit stop, and were shadowing him for the rest of the race.
Engel was on the road for a great result in P3, when he had to go to the pits with a puncture, and ended up outside the points.
Lucas Auer tried to make an aggressive overtaking of Augusto Farfus, and the two cars came into contact with each other. A few laps later, Auer had to go to the pits with a puncture.
The second half of the race was much smoother, and Marco Wittmann could take an easy victory – at least, so he supposed. He was disqualified post race, since there was too little fuel left in the tank.
That gave Mike Rockenfeller the victory ahead of Loic Duval, who had driven a fantastic race from starting P13, while Mattias Ekström took third. He was followed by the fourth Audi with Nico Müller. Gary Paffett was best of the Mercedes in P5, ahead of BMW trio Maxime Martin, Timo Glock and Augusto Farfus.
Photo: DTM
This result meant that Mattias Ekström was back in the lead of the Championship, ahead of Rene Rast and Mike Rockenfeller, who made a great leap into P3 with today’s victory. Timo Glock is the best non-Audi in P4, just ahead of teammate Maxime Martin, while Lucas Auer still is the best Mercedes. It was an expensive weekend for Auer, since he didn’t score any points in any of the races. Jamie Green in 7th make it 4 Audi’s in the Top-7.
Audi has a big lead in the Constructors Championship ahead of BMW and Mercedes, while Audi Sport Team Rosberg leads the Teams Championship ahead of Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline and BMW Team RBM.
The next round of the Championship will be held at Nürburgring on September 9th and 10th.
