Bruno Spengler and BMW slam Audi on-track behaviour

BMW’s Bruno Spengler has slammed Audi’s on-track behaviour after he finished out of the points for the second race in succession due to damage, whilst Mike Rockenfeller extended his championship lead.

Spengler qualified ninth, but by the end of the race at the Nürburgring, the reigning DTM champion crossed the line in 14th after two collisions, and drove most of the race with a heavily damaged car.

The first incident happened on the opening lap going into the first corner, then another took place in the race with Audi’s Filipe Albuquerque going into Turn-2.

“More or less every Audi drove into me today, so car was really damaged on its left side after the first lap” Spengler told TouringCarTimes. “I won’t say it’s intentional, but you have to look at the facts.

“It was aggressive again, a bit like stock-car. To be honest, I think it was a little bit over the limit, as this is the second time I finished with half a car in two races.”

Spengler also conceded that winning the championship is now a remote possibility, after he dropped to fourth in the drivers’ standings; 39 points behind Rockenfeller.

“It looks difficult, so I’m just thinking about the championship in the background. My goal now is just to win races.”

BMW motorsport director, Jens Marquardt, echoed his drivers’ feelings by adding: “For Bruno, it’s the second time this has happened in a row, being pushed off and being hit hard.

“If you take a look at the car, there are so many things hanging off of it. I mean, they really damaged it.

“You can see on the left hand side, around the last quarter panel before the wheelhouse; this is aerodynamically very important, so they hit him hard out there.

Like Spengler, Marquardt stopped short of directly accusing Audi, but he did raise the question whether such robust driving was necessary.

“I wouldn’t say it’s intentional, and I’d say DTM is a bit like that, but the question is, do you always have to drive that hard all the time?

“You can say there are eight of us, and if it’s eight cars, there is always the increased likelihood of incidents, but you shouldn’t really go that for to damage to opponents’ performance like that.”