Hello fans of motorsport! The championship DTM is gaining momentum and this race weekend goes outside Germany, to Budapest on Hungaroring. The third stage of the championship was no less interesting than the previous two.
It all started on Saturday, where the pilots Mercedes and Audi did not give BMW any chance to catch on to the points, none of their cars eventually ended up in the top ten. At the qualifying races, Mercedes and Audi fought, but in the end, Paul Di Resta (1m 37.349 sec) showed his best time on his Mercedes. The second position on the grid was taken by Nico Mueller, the pilot of Audi showed the time 1m 37.484 seconds. Third place was taken by Lucas Auer, who returned to the ranks after a serious accident Rene Rast took the fourth position. The current championship leader Timo Glock showed the sixteenth time. Before the fifth race of the championship, the sky over Budapest was covered with storm clouds, the probability of rain was very high, but in the end, only a small drizzle passed over the track, which did not stop the racers. In contrast to the second free practice, during which the track abundantly poured rain.
Starting with pole position, Paul Di Resta pretty quickly missed the first line, letting forward Lucas Auer. The Austrian on each lap steadily showed the best time and only on the 22nd was 1.4 seconds slower and it was at this round that Di Resta bypassed him, and the Austrian did not strongly defend his position. This overtaking gave rise to a lot of questions, many suggested that this was the command of the head of the Mercedes-AMG team. "The best time I show on cold tires," - so commented on this episode Lucas Auer. Early pit stop allowed him to win back his first position, but did not allow him to keep it. Nico Mueller took third place in this race, the current champion René Rast came to finish fourth. Finished sixth, Gary Paffett became the leader of the championship, as Timo Glock in this race was left without glasses. Like the whole team of the Munich manufacturer, which for the first time this season was left without glasses, the best of the BMW drivers Bruno Spengler came to the finish of the 12th.
Sunday's racing day also began with the triumph of a three-pointed star. All six cars were in the first seven, and five of them took the first position. Only Rene Rast on his Audi was able to wedge in sixth place. The first place on the starting grid was taken by Lucas Auer showing the time 1m 36.717 seconds. The second time showed Pascal Wehrlein (1m 36.780 sec), Paul Di Resta and Edoardo Mortara took third and fourth place respectively. Gary Paffett showed the fifth time. As well as the day before, the sky over Budapest foreshadowed the rainy weather, but unlike the Saturday day where everything cost a fine drizzle, here already on the fourth lap the rain became a big problem. On the eighth lap the race was stopped by a red flag. The rapidly slippery concrete surface of the track led to three incidents on the pit stop, which resulted in injuries to some workers. Lucas Auer's attempt to go to the pit stop resulted in the fact that the unguided machine rammed the wall of boxing and two marshals who were there at that time. One of them was taken to the hospital with severe leg injuries.
In the meantime, it was more difficult for drivers to keep cars on slicks on the track. Only two riders at that time dared rubber on the rain. Two more incidents occurred with the participation of Edoardo Mortara and Bruno Spengler. Both also failed to manage on how many tracks and demolished pit boxes. As a result, several mechanics Mercedes received minor injuries, two firefighters were sent to the hospital, after which the race was suspended. Only after almost half an hour the race was resumed. By that time, the leader of the pilot was Pascal Wehrlaine, the second position was occupied by Gary Paffett. After the resumption of the race, BMW riders Philipp Eng, Marco Wittmann and Timo Glock found themselves in excellent positions. Started the eighth Timo Glock as a result of a mistake on the first lap was thrown to the very end, after a pit stop on the first lap Glock managed to win back several positions before the incidents in the pit lane. Two other pilots also managed to make pitfalls and after the resumption of the race they were left only by those riders who either never visited the pits or were on rain tires. Thus, the BMW drivers who had virtually no chance of winning this race took all three places on the podium.
According to the results of the sixth race Timo Glock (90 points) again became the leader of the championship, Gary Paffett after the contact with Renee Rast was disqualified and did not score points. After two last races, he has 79 points. Third place is now occupied by Paul Di Resta (67 points), and Lucas Auer (57 points) on the fourth. Closes Top 5 Marco Wittmann, he has 51 points.