BMW España Motorsport managed to continue its winning form last weekend as Spaniards José Manuel De los Milagros and Nerea Martí delivered strong performances during the second round of the BMW M2 CS Racing Winter Series Cup held at Estoril. The BMW M2 CS Racing car flying the flag for BMW España Motorsport ran like clockwork once again and Martí and De los Milagros secured two wins and another second place to tighten title fight when the season hits mid-point.
On Saturday, BMW España Motorsport and its drivers made good use of private testing in order to prepare the car for the rest of the weekend. Both qualifying sessions took place on Sunday morning with De los Milagros taking qualifying duties in Q1. Despite traffic during his best flying lap of 1m45.072s, De los Milagros missed pole position in race 1 by a mere 0.011 seconds, the very narrow margin separating the Spaniard and poleman Marcel Marchewicz. In Q2, Martí clocked a lap time of 1m49.098s to take a dominant pole position time, which nobody else could improve in the closing stages.
In race 1, when the lights went out, De los Milagros moved past Marchewicz to take the lead. The Spaniard kept in control until the very few last laps when, due to tire wear, his pace dropped. De los Milagros and Marchewicz got involved in a close battle for the lead in which the latter finally emerged as winner, with De los Milagros finishing second right behind his German rival. In race 2, Martí took a dominant role and Michael Sander, Marchewicz’s teammate, never could get in contention for win. After 26-minute of pure racing action, Martí crossed the finish line taking a commanding triumph. Race 3, in endurance format with mandatory pit stop for driver change, was another challenge for everybody. De los Milagros made the opening stint but a rival hit his BMW and send him spinning at T2. From the back of the field, De los Milagros put in a recovery drive setting numerous fastest laps in the process to move through the field. Before handing over to Martí, De los Milagros was already leading with his BMW España Motorsport’s M2 CS Racing. Martí kept lapping in strong pace and took the chequered flag in first place, 30 seconds ahead of Marchewicz and Sander.
Tied on 116 points, De los Milagros and Martí underline that “it was a perfect weekend for us. We also nearly won the first race but we still managed to bring solid points home with a second place. Title fight is being closely-fought as we and our rivals are tied on points. But the remaining two rounds will take place in Spain, Jerez and Barcelona, and definitely we should have the upper hand on Marchewicz and Sander there. Obviously we have way more experience than them on the Spanish circuits. Everybody at the team is working perfectly and our BMW M2 CS Racing is running like clockwork every race, every weekend. We managed to extend our podium streak at Estoril just like we did in Portimao. We need to keep pushing to properly prepare