Timo Glock took to the podium in the opening race of the 2017 DTM Series for BMW at the Hockenheimring.
“To stand on the podium after the opening race is fantastic. My guys at BMW Team RMG have a lot of hard work behind them. They absolutely deserve this result. The car was only really ready just before the weekend, and was very good from the word go.”
From the opening lap, having got past Edoardo Mortara, Glock and Gary Paffett spent much of the opening half of the race engaged in a tight wheel to wheel battle which saw the German do some brilliant defending to keep the Briton behind despite the latter having usage of DRS. The battle was brought to an end after Paffett attempted a move on Glock and ran wide, gifting the position to Mortara.
“I had a good start and a good opening lap. I passed Gary Paffett straight away, but wasn’t able to pull clear and get him out of the DRS window. That meant I had to defend hard – with everything I have learned in the past. It was really good fun. The fans were treated to a great show.”
After taking his mandatory pit stop, Glock rejoined in fourth place quickly picking off his rivals to find himself in second place and with the opportunity to pressurise Lucas Auer for the lead of the race. Glock went for the move on the Austrian but was not able to make it stick, ultimately dropping back and settling for second place at the line.
“Towards the end, I thought that Lucas Auer was playing games with me and simply saving his tyres. However, he was actually having real difficulties, so I gave it everything. It was not quite enough in the end, but I am definitely happy with second place.”
Things looked as though they were going to be even better for Glock in the Sunday race after claiming pole position but an error after the safety car restart which he was never able to recover from meant he finished in eighth place.
Going into the next round at the Lausitzring, Glock sits in fourth place of the championship on 25 points – 15 points behind championship leader Auer and one point behind joint second place drivers Paffett and Jamie Green.
