Pascal Wehrlein leads Mercedes 1-2-3-4 at the Norisring
Pascal Wehrlein scored his second ever victory in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, winning Race 1 in Norisring, third round of the 2015 DTM season. The young German led the first victory for Mercedes Benz, who took the first four positions of the race.
It was all set for a dry race when a storm fell over the Norisring just 10 minutes before the start of the race, causing most drivers to change to wet tyres. A few of them, including Wehrlein and Audi’s Jamie Green, stuck to the slicks, confident that it wouldn’t rain again.
At the green lights poleman Christian Vietoris was slow getting off the line, so team mate Gary Paffett came alongside. Both were extra careful to not touch, so the German kept the lead.
Lucas Auer came deep into the first corner, colliding with Molina and causing a big tangle, with cars blocking all the width of the circuit. The Safety Car was called into action, staying on track for two laps.
After the SC went back to the pits, Vietoris led the race, followed by Paffett, Robert Wickens and Paul Di Resta. The Canadian was clearly faster than his team mates, and he took second place shortly after.
15 minutes into the race all teams notified their drivers that no more rain was expected, so they should come into the pits and change into slicks. Vietoris and Wickens came into the pits together, and their pit stops seemed like a synchronised dance. The rest of the field did their respective stops in the course of the following three laps, with the exception of the drivers that had started on slicks.
This caused that Pascal Wehrlein to lead the race with a comfortable margin over his team mates at Mercedes. Despite getting a few attacks from Gary Paffett, Robert Wickens was clearly faster than his team mates, and was able to pull the group forward.
Paul Di Resta was forced into retirement when, after being overtaken by Bruno Spengler, was touched by Jamie Green, damaging the rear right side of his Mercedes C63 DTM, and spinning on the track. The Stewards looked at the incident, but ruled that no further action should be taken.
Wehrlein’s tyres started to wear off, and Wickens was recovering half a second per lap. With 10 minutes remaining, the top four Mercedes were separated by just 1.7 seconds, with Robert Wickens seeking to take the lead.
The number 94 Mercedes was able to hold off his team mate’s attacks, to take the win, the second of his DTM career and the first for the Stuttgart manufacturer this season. After Wehrlein, Robert Wickens and Gary Paffett completed the podium, with Christian Vietoris coming fourth, establishing Mercedes’ domination in this race.
Bruno Spengler was fifth with his BMW M4 DTM from Team MTEK, followed by Martin Tomczyk and standings leader Jamie Green. Augusto Farfus was eighth, with Marco Wittmann in ninth position. Mercedes’ Daniel Juncadella was tenth, having lost four positions after being the last man to change into slick tyres.
Pascal Wehrlein: “The team made a great effort, and I’m very pleased for this result. The decision to stay with the slicks was made at the last moment. The track dried very quickly, so I think I was also very lucky.”
After this race, Jamie Green leads the standings with 81 points, followed by Mattias Ekström and Edoardo Mortara on 58.
The DTM is back on track tomorrow morning with the warm up at 9:50 CEST (GMT + 2).
