BMW Team RMG’s Marco Wittmann executed an impressive performance to finish second in the Saturday DTM race at Hockenheim. The two-time series champion was able to close up to Audi Sport Team Rosberg driver René Rast in the latter half of the race, and was able to briefly take the lead from his Audi rival.
Wittmann has displayed exceptionally competitive pace after topping the dry second practice session yesterday, and securing second on the grid for Saturday’s race. The BMW driver was quick to admit that he has had a positive feeling in the car.
“The weekend so far went pretty well, we were strong on friday and also today,” explained Wittmann, “We were pretty competitive at the end, just the safety car was not on our side.
“We had a good pace in the first stint overtook Mike [Rockenfeller] again and closed the gap to René then the undercut would have worked and then the safety car came out.”
Wittmann made his way to pitlane in order to make his mandatory stop, hoping to jump Rast on warm tyres. However, the safety car was called out a lap later due to BMW Team RMR’s Philipp Eng who was stopped on the side of the Parabolika, and Rast was in pitlane as the race was neutralised.
Despite being unable to jump Rast in the stops, Wittmann closed up and passed the Audi driver for the lead at the hairpin, however the BMW competitor believed that he didn’t have the pace to keep Rast at bay.
“At the end after the restart, I had once a chance to make a move to René,” reported Wittmann, “Which I did, but I had already the feeling I just came close with the DRS.
“It was more for the show than for going for the win because one lap later he got me with the DRS.
“The gap stayed pretty much consistent until the end of the race, but there was not really a chance for me to comeback on him.”
After coming so close to a what would have been his first win since race one at Brands Hatch, Wittmann remains positive that he can finish off the season with another victory.
“We started the season with a win, if we can finish it off with a win it would be great for sure,” described the 29-year-old, “It would be great if we could finally have a race win again.
“We will give it a try, the weekend started quite well for us, and the weather forecast looks quite rainy tomorrow.”