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BMW to Start Moscow Race from Pole Position

 The qualifying runs for the fifth DTM race of the season, set to take place in Moscow, had both ups and downs for BMW’s teams. While two cars will start from the front row, some weren’t so lucky and are position towards the last positions due to various reasons.
Maxime Martin 1 photo
Photo: BMW

Maxime Martin, from BMW Team RMG, managed to post the fastest lap round the “Moscow Raceway” with an unbeatable 1:28.619 time followed extremely closely by Bruno Spengler in his Samsung M4, just 0.019 seconds slower.
 
That means that the two will be occupying the front row at today’s race, set to start at 13:00 CET. The 2012 champion will be starting from the front row for the first time this season while for Maxime it’s a premiere altogether.

Unfortunately, other driver’s weren’t so lucky. Augusto Farfus and Marco Wittmann are closer to the front of the grid with the former starting from 6th and the later from seventh.

Qualifying came to an end after the second session for three BMW drivers. Timo Glock was tenth fastest, narrowly missing out on Q3. His team-mate at BMW Team MTEK, António Félix da Costa, recovered well from a technical problem in free practice to qualify 13th at the wheel of his  M4 DTM. Joey Hand was 16th in qualifying.

“That was an extremely close qualifying here in Russia, and a real battle between Audi and us. Maxime Martin produced an awesome qualifying to secure pole position on only his fifth DTM race weekend. Bruno Spengler also put in a strong performance to qualify second. We also landed a further three cars in the top ten, courtesy of Augusto Farfus, Marco Wittmann and Timo Glock,” said Jens Marquardt, BMW Motorsport Director.
 
“That was a fantastic qualifying for me – and in all three sessions too. To start only my fifth DTM race from the very front is awesome. It feels absolutely great. However, we are well aware that the race is a completely different story. I now want to show that I can consistently mix it with the front-runners,” said Maxim Martin about his performance.
 
The race is set to begin on 13:00 CET, with BMW in second place in the Manufacturer’s championship and Marco Wittmann on the first place on the Driver’s Championship. 
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