– Timo Glock achieved the best result of his McLaren era with seventh place in the DTM Saturday race in Spielberg, but there was clearly more possible: The ex-Formula 1 driver would probably have finished fourth if he had not received a penalty lap for wheel spin during the pit stop, which cost five seconds – and which he then served too late.
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“In the end, it was my mistake,” Glock admits after the race. “I noticed that the pit stop was good and was just a tick too early with my foot off the brake.” Glock almost lost seventh place as well, because the McLaren driver served his penalty lap, which he received in lap 28, only in lap 30.
The regulations state that the finish line may be crossed at most once after the penalty is announced and before passing through the penalty zone. Why did the race stewards turn a blind eye and opt for “no further action”?
This is because the penalty was communicated to the driver immediately before crossing the finish line. In addition, the team was able to prove that there were radio problems.
Not the first time wheel spin at Dörr-McLaren
Interesting: Teammate Ben Dörr was penalized twice in 2025 – at Norisring and at the finale in Hockenheim – for wheel spin during the stop, while this hardly happens at other teams. This may be because the clutch does not always disengage cleanly when it gets hot.
Therefore, Dörr drivers have to keep the brake pedal pressed alongside the clutch pedal throughout the entire pit stop. In Glock’s case, the wheel spin in Spielberg was apparently due to him releasing the clutch a little too early.
Otherwise, the pit stops continue to be the team’s Achilles’ heel: Only on Saturday did Glock’s stop run smoothly at 7.2 seconds, on Sunday the crew needed 8.5 and 8.2 seconds for Ben Dörr, and 8.8 and 10.8 seconds for Glock. “There is still room for improvement here,” knows GT3 head Volker Strycek.
Best DTM result for Ben Dörr after night shift
In terms of pure pace, Glock’s teammate was faster on both days, but on Saturday the youngster became an unlucky victim of contact with Land-Porsche rookie Bastian Buus after starting from second place and crashed into the barriers.
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Highlights DTM Race 1 Spielberg
“We had severe damage to the rear,” says Dörr team manager Axel Funke. “Thanks to a great team effort and a night shift, we got the car back on track.” Ben Dörr drove to seventh place on Sunday with the repaired car, also his best DTM result so far, Glock finished 15th.
“A lot has changed on my side of the car. A lot was adjusted, which made it significantly more difficult,” Glock refers to the difficult preparation. “With only one real test we had last week, which unfortunately was not satisfactory either because we only had problems and I couldn’t really drive much.”
“Basic issues that stand in our way”: Why Glock experienced a false start
With Gerd Kusstatscher, with whom Glock already worked at the former BMW team Walkenhorst, the Odenwald native has a “new engineer who is really doing a good job but doesn’t know the car at all and has to get familiar first.”
In addition, on Friday “we had the next issue with problems on the car,” he says without going into detail. “In the evening we also found out that the ride heights we were running were actually not allowed because we had an error from the measuring instruments,” Glock explains.
“So many basic issues that somehow stand in our way. At least on my car, everything was fine with Ben.” Accordingly, Glock was poorly prepared for the first qualifying. “For us, it was this morning just holding fingers in the wind and seeing what we do,” he describes the starting position before ninth place.
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“For that, we actually looked quite good – and now in the race we also made another change that was positive.” At least on Saturday, Glock experienced a “trouble-free day” according to his own statements. How does the team react? Asked about the problem with the ride height, team manager Funke says: “We recognized the error and are fixing it internally.”
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