Blomqvist: First DTM win felt like F3

BMW rookie Tom Blomqvist says his first DTM victory at Oschersleben took him back to his time in Formula 3.

Having finished second in the European F3 Championship last year, between Esteban Ocon and Toro Rosso Formula 1 driver Max Verstappen, Blomqvist headed to Oschersleben with a best race result of seventh in the DTM. He left with silverware after taking his maiden victory in the Sunday race, leading home RBM teammate Augusto Farfus by nearly eight seconds.

In becoming the seventh British driver to win in the series, Blomqvist said that racing in clean air, rather than being in the thick of the DTM pack, reminded him of open-wheel racing.

"I've always felt that the biggest thing that I had to get used to this year was the racing; being in the pack, using DRS, that sort of stuff," he told AUTOSPORT. "So I knew that if I had an opportunity to get into clean air, my life would be a little bit easier and I would be really able to maximise the package I had.

"And that's basically what happened, it's a little bit more what I'm used to from formula cars, having that space on track to really just nail the qualifying laps all race. I was in that situation and really made the most of it.

"I was quite confident, I knew I just had to get that lead. I did and the race was I guess quite faultless, not only from BMW but also the team."

Blomqvist has been a regular top-10 qualifier during his rookie campaign, however race results have not been forthcoming. Some of that has been due to reliability and incidents – such as being forced wide at the first corner of Saturday's Oschersleben race after qualifying third – but making his BMW work over a race distance had also been a focus.

"It's not easy, this championship, it's really close," he said. "Qualifying is literally, 'you have to be spot on' because if in a formula car, for instance, you can make a little mistake, lose one tenth, and it's not really going to affect you so much. Here, you lose one tenth, you're back 10 positions. You have to nail it and that's what makes the difference in this championship. It's quite high pressure in qualifying because you know that you can't get away with anything.

"I've always been quite strong in qualifying, the races were an area I had to work on, so I knew if I could finally get at the front and get into the lead of a race, then I'd like to see how I'd perform. It was really good, it's a bit of a monkey off my back, and to get a win for BMW is unbelievable."

Originally on Autosport.com