Sheldon van der Linde best-placed BMW driver in fourth place at Sunday’s Nürburgring race

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Nürburgring. Sheldon van der Linde (RSA, Shell BMW M4 DTM) was the best-placed BMW driver in Sunday’s race, finishing fourth on the Nürburgring sprint circuit. Behind the South African driver, Marco Wittmann (GER, Schaeffler BMW M4 DTM) followed up on yesterday’s third podium of the season by finishing fifth.

Timo Glock (GER, iQOO BMW M4 DTM) in eighth place and Jonathan Aberdein (RSA, CATL BMW M4 DTM) in tenth also scored points in the twelfth race of the 2020 DTM season. Philipp Eng (AUT, ZF BMW M4 DTM) crossed the finish line in twelfth position, just ahead of 13^th-placed Lucas Auer (AUT) in the BMW Bank M4 DTM.

Having started the race from sixth on the grid, van der Linde lost two places at the start but was able to reclaim them in the opening stages of the race. The South African driver continued to gain ground after his pit stop on lap 13, passing Ferdinand Habsburg (AUT, Audi) and Wittmann to move into fourth place. Victory in the twelfth DTM race of 2020 went to Nico Müller (SUI, Audi).

In the drivers’ standings, van der Linde has climbed to fourth position and remains the best-placed BMW driver with 88 points. The seventh race weekend of the DTM season takes place from 9^th to 11^th October at Zolder (BEL).

Reactions to the twelfth DTM race of the 2020 season.

Rudolf Dittrich (General Manager BMW Motorsport Vehicle Development):

“Unfortunately, we did not quite manage to secure another podium today. We have to recognise that Nico Müller, Robin Frijns and René Rast represent the benchmark this year. Nonetheless, Sheldon van der Linde and Marco Wittmann gave good performances in fourth and fifth positions. Congratulations to Nico Müller on the race win and to Audi on winning the manufacturers’ title. We will now concentrate on producing a few highlights over the course of the upcoming race weekends.”

Marco Wittmann (#11 Schaeffler BMW M4 DTM, BMW Team RMG, Grid: 5^th, Race: 5^th, Drivers’ standings: 7^th, 86 points):

“I had a good start and a good opening stage, in which I was able to overtake Ferdinand Habsburg. I was actually pretty happy to be driving behind the front three. Unfortunately, we lost the race a bit due to the pit stop strategy when Sheldon overtook us with his undercut. It is a bit disappointing to give your all during the first stint and then lose a place during the pit stop. Third place yesterday, fifth today - all in all, that’s OK.”

Timo Glock (#16 iQOO BMW M4 DTM, BMW Team RMG, Grid: 8^th, Race: 8^th, Driver’s standings: 8^th, 73 points):

“The balance was pretty OK but I just didn’t have the top speed on the straights. We have had this problem for the last three races and we are a bit trapped. It means that we always have to use the DRS very early in the race to keep up. In the end, we couldn’t have done much better than eighth place.”

Lucas Auer (#22 BMW Bank M4 DTM, BMW Team RMR, Grid: 9^th, Race: 13^th, Drivers’ standings: 11^th, 36 points):

“I was in tenth place and came out right at the back of the field after the pit stop. The pit stop went well but I think that we will have to analyse the strategy again. Many of our competitors used the undercut to overtake us. We know that it is difficult to overtake the Audis. If you lose a lot of positions, of course that makes it very difficult. But qualifying was a lot better today, at least.”

Philipp Eng (#25 ZF BMW M4 DTM, BMW Team RBM, Grid: 10^th, Race: 12^th, Drivers’ standings: 10^th, 43 points):

“Yesterday’s race was great and today it was really bad. My weapons were blunt today and I could not put up a fight. I had no balance, the car was very restless and, all in all, it was much worse than yesterday.”

Jonathan Aberdein (#27 CATL BMW M4 DTM, BMW Team RMR, Grid: 13^th, Race: 10^th, Drivers’ standings: 13^th, 33 points):

“Of course, you can’t be satisfied with tenth place. It is some consolation that we did at least manage to move up from 13^th place to finish in the points. We had great racing pace yesterday but that seemed to disappear a bit today. We will continue to battle away nonetheless.”

Sheldon van der Linde (#31 Shell BMW M4 DTM, BMW Team RBM, Grid: 6^th, Race: 4^th, Drivers’ standings: 4^th, 88 points):

“I am very pleased with today’s race. Finishing sixth in qualifying was very important for the race. I didn’t make a good start and lost some positions, but I was able to reclaim them. The car drove really well today and the pace was very good. The strategy was also really good. We pitted early and the undercut worked out. That meant that we had a very long second stint but the car felt great all the way to the finish.”