Glock wins Zandvoort DTM as Rast takes championship lead

Timo Glock has scored his first win of the season at Zandvoort in The Netherlands. At the 4.307-kilometers-long circuit in the dunes, the 35-year-old scored a dominant win after 37 laps from his fellow BMW drivers Marco Wittmann and Maxime Martin. For ex-Formula 1 driver Glock, it is his fourth DTM race win in his 67th race.

"Three BMWs up front, a dream," Glock said about the race result. Fourth and fifth place went to Audi drivers Mike Rockenfeller and Jamie Green. Paul Di Resta was the best-placed Mercedes-AMG driver in seventh. For René Rast, ninth place was enough to take the lead in the DTM drivers' standings from his fellow Audi driver Mattias Ekstrom.

What looked like an undisputed lights-to-flag victory for Glock, who had started from pole position, was hard work behind the wheel: "My left front tire was at the limit very fast. It felt strange and I was really worried whether the tire would last throughout the distance. But eventually, everything went well and I am very happy with the result."

Rast can also be more or less happy. The Audi driver only scored two points for his ninth-place finish, but that was enough to move ahead of Ekstrom in the drivers' standings with an advantage of one point. The Swede, who had started the race from 10th place on the grid, lost his chances of scoring a good result by himself as he slid into the gravel trap with cold tires after his pit stop and also spun on the same lap. Thus, he was no longer able to score points. Lucas Auer didn't score any points either. After 16th place in qualifying, Auer collided with Nico Müller in the race. The Austrian was able to continue his race, but 15th place was all he managed.

In the DTM drivers' standings, the first eight drivers are closer together after the race at Zandvoort on Saturday: points leader Rast (114 points) and Rockenfeller (85 points) in eighth place are separated by only 29 points. Behind Rast, Ekstrom is second with 113 points ahead of Auer (99 points) and Glock (98 points).