 win at its home track.){kind=link}
aTeam RMG’s Maxime Martin took his second Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) career win at the famed Nürburgring, which is home turf for the team run by Stefan Reinhold, where Martin’s team mate, Marco Wittmann, won last year.
The Belgian, who took his maiden win at Moscow Raceway last year, never looked back having taken a hard inside line against current points leader Pascal Wehrlein on the every first corner of the race.
Team RMG did a fantastic job and gave me a perfect car,” explained Martin, who admitted that he didn’t get the very best of starts, as Wehrlein, pole sitter Lucas Auer were three-wide heading into the first turn with Martin.
“I was able to assert myself in the first corner and pull away from the pack. However, towards the end of the race I was having problems with my tyres.
“I had to fight because my rivals had caught up. But everything went well today, and I finally made it back onto the top of the podium after the race in Moscow last year.”
Team Principal Stefan Reinhold was overjoyed with the efforts of his Niederzissen-based squad, who secured the Team titles last year at Circuit Park Zandvoort, felt it had definitely been an “RMG Saturday.”
“We put a lot of thought into our home event ahead of the weekend. I told my guys that the Nürburgring has always been good to us, and that proved true once again today,” said Reinhold, complimenting Martin on his “fantastic performance.”
“Marco Wittmann drove another clever race and was able to pick up points. However, I felt a bit sorry for him that we weren’t able to push him further up the field in qualifying. But, despite that, we can be more than happy with today. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
Wittmann, who secured the drivers’ title last year at Lausitzring, was “pleased with how the race ended,” despite having admitted that he fell back down a few places in the early stages.
“It was a very turbulent and exciting race. There were lots of duels, cars coming into contact and accidents. I dropped down the field slightly at the start, but then I made up six places in one lap. Ultimately we can be pleased with how the race ended. Maxime Martin won at our home event.
“Congratulations to him and the team. I finished seventh. That is a good team result. Now we have to make sure that I do better in qualifying tomorrow, so that we can go on full attack once again. Overall today was a lot of fun.”
Martin moves up to tenth in the drivers’ standings, with his win taking his points tally to 71.
Wittmann now is level with Bruno Spengler on 104 points, but the current champion is in fifth overall, as a result of his win at Circuit Park Zandvoort back in August.