After four races in the 2017 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season, it has been a difficult time for BMW Motorsport, who have fallen behind both Mercedes-AMG Motorsport and Audi Sport in the race for the manufacturers’ title.
The Munich manufacturer had two of its six M4 DTMs in the points in the second race at Lausitz, with Maxime Martin and Marco Wittmann finishing eighth and ninth respectively.
As a result, BMW Motorsport finds itself with just 64 points to its credit after the first two rounds, 123 points behind Mercedes-AMG Motorsport.
Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt admitted that it was a difficult day for the drivers and teams, explaining that the results secured by both Martin and Wittmann were “not the results we were looking for.”
“I think it was very tight, but after that, the strategy was a hard one and we have to see what we could have done better.
“Marco, pace-wise, was pretty much there. He could have ended further up with his pace and maybe we could have left him out a bit longer, but that we have to look into. For sure, not a good weekend for us, and we have to do a lot better in Budapest.”
Defending champion Wittmann, whose title defence has not got off to a great start, felt that his efforts were the best he could muster today, but was in agreement with Marquardt regarding major steps forward being required.
“I am fairly pleased with the result. I had decent pace and I was able to drive a long time before the first stop,” said the 27-year-old, who is currently down in 11th place in the standings on 18 points.
“I battled my way up to ninth, had a great contest with Lucas Auer and closed the gap to the cars ahead. However, the Audis were pretty much unassailable today. We still have plenty of work to do.”