Timo Glock wins wet Hockenheim thriller
BMW’s Timo Glock has taken his maiden DTM victory at Hockenheim in a thrilling climax to the 2013 DTM season.
Roberto Merhi had an equally impressive afternoon after taking the first podium of his DTM career with second.
Bruno Spengler completed the final step of the podium with third, a mere 1.4 seconds ahead of a hard-charging Mattias Ekström.
Despite dropping back at the start of the race, Glock ran an impressive 30-lap stint on the wet Hankook tyre to build himself a cushion which enabled him to jump pole-sitter Bruno Spengler, who appeared to be on course for his second win of 2013 after making a clean getaway.
However, Spengler’s decision to pit earlier than Glock on lap 14 proved to be decisive in both BMW drivers’ races, with Glock eventually benefitting to take his first DTM career victory.
Despite qualifying on the back row in 21st, Merhi’s impressive pace was such that he managed to optimise a similar strategy to Spengler’s to take second even with a drive-through penalty for making a jump start.
The HWA Mercedes driver made his first stop on lap 14, and until his second on lap 30, was a serious contender for victory.
Ekström appeared to be a potential winner and like Glock, once again ran an impressive 30-lap stint on the wet Hankooks.
The Swede got the gap to the race winner down to 1.8 seconds by lap 16. However, his impressive race was undone following a racing incident with Dani Juncadella on lap 27.
Like Merhi, Juncadella had managed to work his way through the field to catch up with Ekström, but made contact with the Abt Audi as both cars went into the hairpin.
Despite running as third on lap 29, Juncadella eventually finished 10th as a result of a drive-through penalty.
Miguel Molina finished fifth, ahead of Andy Priaulx who rounded out the top-six after running as high as second in opening stages of the race.
Christian Vietoris finished seventh after a lively afternoon, which saw him make contact with the BMWs of Augusto Farfus, and second place starter, Dirk Werner, at various points in the race.
Martin Tomczyk and Joey Hand finished last of the classified runners in 19th and 20th.
Both BMW drivers were running out of points paying position when they decided to gamble on slick tyres as the track appeared to be drying.
The decision proved to be counter productive, as both cars were running around eight seconds off the pace, when the majority of the field was running at 1m48s and 49s.
For the first time in 2013, the newly crowned DTM champion, Mike Rockenfeller, finished out of the points down in 16th.
