Mercedes happy with Gary Paffett’s ‘incredible’ race
Gary Paffett was the hero for Mercedes Benz today at Hockenheim. The Briton recovered 20 positions in difficult conditions to finish third in the race, scoring his first points and leaving a mark about the competitiveness of the C63 DTM.
The 2005 champion had qualified eighth but was relegated to to the 23rd place for an infringement of the Sporting regulations. From there, he went on a spectacular charge, gaining 20 places in the tricky weather conditions, helped in part by coming in early to change to wet weather tyres.
The Briton was beaming after such a strong show: “The weekend was a roller-coaster. Obviously I was feeling disappointed after the first race yesterday and the second qualifying session today. We had a really good car this weekend that was unbelievably fast in the rain. In these conditions, it’s very easy to make mistakes. But the team did a fantastic job, and the race went perfectly for me. After this difficult opening weekend, it’s great to be back on the podium. The switch to rain tyres worked beautifully, and our strategy paid off in the end. I’ve never before been so happy about a third place as I am today. A big thank you to my team. The crew did a great job and have thoroughly deserved this result.”
Robert Wickens and Pascal Wehrlein were in the points for the Stuttgart manufacturer, finishing in seventh and eighth positions respectively.
The Canadian had a positive feeling despite not getting the result he would have wanted: “To come away from the weekend with some points is a positive, even if it wasn’t as many as I wanted. The start today was great and I managed to get up to P6, so I was happy with that. But we weren’t expecting quite so much rain and struggled for performance in the middle of the race with tyre pressures that weren’t quite right.”
Pascal Wehrlein was disappointed to not get the result he would have expected, but thinks he has shown strong potential: “The race was hard-fought. I had plenty of scraps and moved forwards to take eighth place, proving this weekend that I am one of the fastest both in the dry and the wet.”
Ulrich Fritz, Head of DTM, is happy the weekend turned out positive despite some shortcomings from the team: “What an incredible race by Gary. It’s a mega achievement to start from P23 and finish on the podium. Plus, we also have Robert and Pascal in the Top Ten today, despite not managing qualifying as well as we might have done. All in all, we can really talk about having made a good start to the season, and that makes me especially pleased for the whole team who worked so hard during the winter.”
Pascal Wehrlein leaves Hockenheim as the best-placed Mercedes driver in fourth place in the standings, with the three-point star second in the Manufacturers’ table.
