Timo Glock: Classics BMW drive better than poor 2019 DTM season
Ex-Formula 1 driver Timo Glock says driving in the supporting Tourenwagen Classics at Lausitzring has been the highlight of his season, after another DTM weekend blighted by reliability problems
He drove a 1988 Zakspeed BMW M3 E30 during Saturday's qualifying session for the classic category, the DTM timetable preventing him from also racing the car. Sometime Super Touring racer Christian Menzel and 1980s DTM contender Marc Hessel usually share the M3.
Glock endured a nightmare DTM weekend in which he retired moments after his mandatory pitstop in the opener due to a driveshaft failure, before retiring on Sunday after reporting his steering kept pulling to the right.
He lies 13th in the drivers' standings and has scored points in just five of 14 races having struggled to put qualifying laps together and suffered multiple reliability problems.
Amid that struggle, he told Autosport the Classic session was "good fun" and "the highlight of the year" even though he "just did qualifying as it never really fit with the schedule".
He admitted that he had "never had a year like this" in the DTM, but added "it is how it is, you get through it and see if it gets better at the end of the year".
Glock said the difference between the M3 E30 and his 2019-spec M4 DTM was "night and day".
"The cars are very different, and each one is a lot of fun in its own way," he said. "It's great to drive the BMW M3 E30 because everything is mechanical.
"You don't have aerodynamic downforce, and as a driver, you can, for example, be influenced quite a lot on how the car enters corners.
"Our BMW M4 DTM is significantly faster. It has a lot more horsepower and you have the aerodynamic downforce that enables us to drive through these high corners speeds how we do today. They are both fantastic cars."
Since taking two top-six finishes at the Hockenheim season opener, Glock's best result - and his most recent points finish - is a fifth at July's Assen event.
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