Maxime Martin to start from the front row at the Nürburgring – Bruno Sprengler second-best BMW driver in fourth.

Summary

Maxime Martin (BE) in second place was the best-placed BMW driver in the qualifying session for the 15th DTM race of the year at the Nürburgring (DE) on Saturday. At the home race for BMW Team RMG in the Eifel, he set a personal best time of 1:21.999 minutes at the wheel of the SAMSUNG BMW M4 DTM, and only narrowly missed out on pole position: He was just 0.084 seconds slower than Lucas Auer (AT, Mercedes), who will start the race from pole position.

Nürburgring (DE), 26th September 2015. Maxime Martin (BE) in second place was the best-placed BMW driver in the qualifying session for the 15th DTM race of the year at the Nürburgring (DE) on Saturday. At the home race for BMW Team RMG in the Eifel, he set a personal best time of 1:21.999 minutes at the wheel of the SAMSUNG BMW M4 DTM, and only narrowly missed out on pole position: He was just 0.084 seconds slower than Lucas Auer (AT, Mercedes), who will start the race from pole position.

Bruno Spengler (CA, BMW Bank M4 DTM) in fourth place was the second BMW driver in the top ten. Just missing out on the first five starting rows were rookie Tom Blomqvist (GB, BMW M4 DTM) in 11th, directly followed by reigning DTM champion Marco Wittmann (DE, Ice-watch BMW M4 DTM) in 12th. Augusto Farfus (BR) was 16th in the Shell BMW M4 DTM, Timo Glock (DE, DEUTSCHE POST BMW M4 DTM) qualified in 18th place. António Félix da Costa (PT, Red Bull BMW M4 DTM) had to make do with 20th, while a technical problem prevented Martin Tomczyk (DE, BMW M Performance Parts M4 DTM) from driving any timed laps during qualifying.

Quote from the best-placed BMW driver.

“I didn’t expect this result, which makes me even happier with second place on the grid. It seems as if the Nürburgring is my territory. I’m especially pleased for BMW Team RMG that we are so close to the front at our home event here in the Eifel. Now anything is possible in the race. I'm starting from the front row, and second place is a good starting position from which to go on the attack. But we will have to wait and see: The race is long, anything can happen.” - Maxime Martin (BMW Team RMG, 2nd place)

Facts and Figures.

Circuit/length:

Nürburgring, 3.629 kilometres

Conditions:

Cloudy, 12 degrees Celsius

Pole time:

Lucas Auer (AT, Mercedes), 1:21.915 minutes

BMW Motorsport results*:

#36 Maxime Martin (BE), BMW Team RMG, SAMSUNG BMW M4 DTM

1:21.999 minutes – 2nd place

#7 Bruno Spengler (CA), BMW Team MTEK, BMW Bank M4 DTM

1:22.032 minutes – 4th place

#31 Tom Blomqvist (GB), BMW Team RBM, BMW M4 DTM

1:22.151 minutes – 11th place

#1 Marco Wittmann (DE), BMW Team RMG, Ice-Watch BMW M4 DTM

1:22.156 minutes – 12th place

#18 Augusto Farfus (BR), BMW Team RBM, Shell BMW M4 DTM

1:22.365 minutes – 16th place

#16 Timo Glock (DE), BMW Team MTEK, DEUTSCHE POST BMW M4 DTM

1:22.381 minutes – 18th place

#13 António Félix da Costa (PT), BMW Team Schnitzer, Red Bull BMW M4 DTM

1:22.574 minutes – 20th place

#77 Martin Tomczyk (DE), BMW Team Schnitzer, BMW M Performance Parts M4 DTM

No lap time – 24th place

*The official starting grid may differ from the provisional qualifying results published in this release.

Useful information:

After eight minutes, the qualifying session had to be stopped briefly after an accident involving Adrien Tambay (FR, Audi).

Second place for Maxime Martin is his best qualifying result so far in the 2015 season.

After his pole position in Moscow (RU) in 2014, where he later went on to win the race, this is the second time that Martin will start from the front row in the DTM.

The 15th of this year’s 18 DTM races begins at 13:25 hrs local time.

Press Contact: Ingo Lehbrink
Tel: +49-89-382-76003
E-mail: ingo.lehbrink@bmw.de