Why Ceccato-BMW driver Timo Glock went after AMG driver Mikael Grenier after his retirement at the DTM guest start in Imola and what the Canadian has to say about it
Emotions ran high for Timo Glock after his retirement at Imola after the first lap and numerous touches with GruppeM Mercedes rookie Mikael (read the race report here). “He’s just a complete idiot, the Grenier or whatever his name is, who drove into my car 13 times, for no reason, partly on the straight,” the 40-year-old Ceccato BMW driver scolded on ‘ProSieben’ immediately after his retirement.
“A complete moron in front of the gentlemen – point, end, out,” Glock, whose first of two guest starts was already over before it had really begun, once again gave vent to his anger at the French-Canadian.
But what had happened? Glock started the race from 18th on the grid, Grenier started four places behind him from 22nd. While the BMW driver lost two places, the AMG driver was right behind him after just two corners and set off on an overtaking manoeuvre.
Rim broken on Glock’s BMW M4 GT3
The two drove side by side through the Acque Minerale corner and touched each other several times before Glock slid off the track but returned ahead of Grenier. A little later, the TV pictures only showed Glock braking into the Rivazza corner with a smoking right rear tyre and having to let one competitor go after the other.
Here you can see again how TimoGlock got hit … DTM Imola pic.twitter.com/VwEbD8S03R
– Motorsport-Total.com (@MST_DTM) June 18, 2022
“It’s probably the suspension broken,” was Glock’s first suspicion. “Then at some point on the right rear when braking, after he somehow drove into my car there 13 times.” Then, according to his own account, he wanted to “slowly drive back to the pits – and then Esteban Muth drove into my car, who didn’t see me in all the commotion.”
After that, the rear of the car was completely broken because Muth’s rear-end collision also caused part of the rear left fairing to come off – Glock immediately retired in the pits. It was discovered that it was not the suspension that had broken, but the rim on the Ceccato BMW. “After the start I actually tried to stay out of it,” shrugs Glock, who doesn’t understand Grenier’s aggressive pace.
Grenier: “The whole straight bang, bang, bang!”
But how did the 29-year-old, who joined the AMG squad at the start of 2022 and surprised everyone with second place on the grid at the DTM opener in Portimao, experience the tussle with Glock?
“We had a bit of contact on the straight up to turn 9, he hit me all the way down the straight – bang, bang, bang!”, “Then he overtook me and had a puncture.”
Grenier, unlike Glock, refrains from accusations. “I don’t blame him because everyone is trying to find space. I don’t want to blame him there because that’s the way it is when you start there. That’s the only chance to overtake,” he points out that gaining positions on the tight Imola circuit is particularly difficult in normal racing.
“At the end of the race I had Götz behind me,” says Grenier, who ended up 19th ahead of DTM champion Maximilian Götz. “He had super fresh tyres, but he couldn’t do anything because overtaking is extremely difficult here. “