After two top ten finishes this year, BMW Motorsport’s Maxime Martin was “surprised” about the fact that he was able to secure his first DTM podium since Norisring last year, even after starting from the back end of the grid for race two at the Hungaroring.
“It’s very unexpected, to be honest,” said the Belgian, who closed up on Audi Sport’s Mattias Ekström for the runner-up spot on the rostrum, after pitting on lap one.
“I spent the majority of the race behind Mattias, even though he couldn’t really see me, but I wasn’t that far away.
“There was nothing to lose so we tried an aggressive strategy to pit on lap one, and see how we got on.”
The Team RBM driver felt very comfortable with his M4 DTM during the race, which saw higher temperatures than Saturday’s race, enabling him to be the fastest of all BMW drivers.
“I could really push a lot during my stint and the car was really good. We had a really good race car and could focus more on the race to do something different, and it paid off a bit. I’m really surprised but really happy to be on the podium. After the start of the weekend, it’s really good to be here.”
The weekend had not got off to the best start for Martin, who qualified 12th for race one, before a collision prompted him to retire, along with a three-place grid penalty for his troubles.
Nevertheless, Martin was still optimistic of future race performances this season, despite troubles plaguing the initial stages of his race weekend.
“There was a lot of frustration with technical problems in FP1, FP2 and in the race. Starting last was not the best, but when you can finish on the podium every time, for me it’s no problem.”
He now moves up to 12th in the drivers’ classification on 17 points, and could be one more to watch along the banks of the Dutzendteich in just under a fortnight’s time.