BMW Team RBM’s Augusto Farfus and Team MTEK’s Timo Glock have been given grid penalties of five and three places respectively ahead of Sunday’s race at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz.
Brazilian Farfus originally qualified in tenth but was subsequently given a five-place penalty demoting him to 15th after he used a set of tyres that were not nominated for his car during Saturday morning’s free practice session.
“It is unfortunate about my five place grid penalty,” explained Farfus. “A misunderstanding in free practice resulted in us using the wrong tyres. It gave us no advantage at all, but that’s part of the game. I now have to look forward and not backwards and think I can make up some positions and score some points.”
Glock, meanwhile, was given a three-place penalty after being adjudge to have impeded Mercedes’ Daniel Juncadella at the exit of the pitlane during qualifying. The penalty drops the German from 14th to 17th.
Glock admitted after qualifying that it had not been a good session, with several BMW drivers struggling for pace. The penalty will come as a further blow to the ex Formula 1 driver.
“That was not the qualifying we had hoped for,” admitted Glock. “The car was very difficult to control over the many bumps. We improved since practice, but not enough.”