Marco Wittmann managed to finish in the points at Lausitzring, in the eight round of the 2014 DTM Championship and secured the driver’s title before the end of the season. Starting out on seventh place he finished sixth, enough to make sure nobody can catch up to him anymore. With this win, Marco follows in the footsteps of some legendary drivers like Volker Strycek, Eric van de Poele, Roberto Ravaglia and Bruno Spengler, all of them winners of the DTM in the past. The statistics show even better numbers.
He’s the third youngest driver of all time to win the German Touring Championship and he’s the first one in the recent history (post 2000) of the DTM to win it all in his second year. What’s more, Marco continues a BMW tradition that saw all new models win the championship in the year they were introduced. Therefore, Strycek won it in 1984 with his BMW 635CSi, van de Poele repeated the performance in 1987 with the E30 M3 and Bruno did the same in 2012 with the M3 DTM.
Marco managed his performance with a strong start in the Championship. On May 4th he started on the Hockenheim from pole position and didn’t let go of it until the end of the race, dominating the opening round. Then came the race in Oschersleben on May 18th where he was defeated by rain, having to set for 19th place by the end of the round even though he started from pole position, again. He made up for it in Hungary, on the Hungaroring, on June 1st, where he led the pack from the start to finish. His third win of the season came in the sixth race, on Spielberg despite having to race with 7.5 extra kilograms on board. That was the most impressive display of BMW this year, with a quadruple win for the Bavarians.
Nurburgring brought about another win for Marco, pushing him towards the title before the eight and decisive round. Once again he started from pole position and was followed on the podium by Rockenfeller from Audi. With 128 points to his name now, Witmann has a 69-point lead over second-placed Christian Vietoris from Mercedes that can’t catch up anymore. BMW Team RMG also leads in the Team standings with 167 points while BMW runs the Manufacturers’ Championship with 320 points.
“Unbelievable. This is an absolutely awesome feeling. The constantly changing conditions made it a really difficult race today. There were a lot of battles, and I just tried to stay out of bother. A few drivers skidded off the track and it was topsy-turvy at times. After yesterday I did not really believe that it would work out today,” Marco said after the race.
“On the whole, however, we were able to drive a clean race. I am so emotional now, it is crazy. The season has been incredible so far. I am so proud of BMW Team RMG and BMW Motorsport. Everyone has done a sensational job. The pit stop was superb again today. To already know that I am the champion is amazing. I think we will have a fantastic party today,” he added.
