DTM: Da Costa leads BMW's top 5 at Zandvoort
BMW completed fantastic DTM weekend at Zandvoort after Antonio Felix da Costa won one-hour race. After winning top seven positions on Saturday, Bavarians today made top five. Augusto Farfus finished second, Bruno Spengler third, while Timo Glock and Marco Wittmann finished fourth and fifth respectively.
Da Costa and Spengler kept their positions after the start, but Wittmann dropped to fourth after poor start leaving Farfus to move up to third. Miguel Molina gave a glimmer of hope for Audi after he overtook Daniel Juncadella in battle for fifth and he was the only driver of Ingolstadt based manufacturer in top 10.
After just five laps, Martin Tomczyk moved up five positions to the eighth place and looked very determined to move up further. Most drivers went into the mandatory pit-stop after 20 minutes of racing and that caused some shuffling in the standings. Maximilian Gotz in Mercedes took the lead in front of three Audis with Mike Rockenfeller, Nico Muller and Timo Scheider, but all of them had to go into the pit.
Huge battle was behind them as the cars which already finished with a pit-stop pushed hard. Gaps were very close and car parts were all over the track. When Martin Tomczyk’s BMW stopped on the track after duel with Lucas Auer, it was thought safety car will be called, but nothing had happened and the race was continued. Next one to retire were Juncadella after contact with Edoardo Mortara who also had to go into garage.
As leading quartet went to complete pit-stop, BMW’s slowly progressed up front. Da Costa again was the leader of the race with 22 minutes to go and behind him were Farfus, Spengler, Glock and Wittmann. Mercedes’ Pascal Wehrlein and Christian Vietoris were on positions six and seven, while Mattias Ekstrom on eighth was highest ranked Audi driver.
It was obvious that BMW completes perfect weekend at Zandvoort, but with 10 minutes to go and with light rain, battle for victory still was opened. At the end, Antonio Felix da Costa defended first place and clinched first DTM victory in career, leaving Augusto Farfus second and Bruno Spengler third. Timo Glock and reigning champion Marco Witmmann completed a success of the Bavarian manufacturer taking positions four and five.
Remaining scorers in the DTM race 2 at Zandvoort are Pascal Wehrlein (Mercedes), Mattias Ekstrom (Audi), Christian Vietoris (Mercedes), Adrien Tambay (Audi) and Gary Paffett (Mercedes) who probably could finish higher, but his pit-stop time was far below the standards, so he dropped down through the rankings.
Next round of the DTM will be held during first weekend in August at Red Bull Ring in Austria.
