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Mercedes bounces back to ‘perfect weekend’ at Norisring

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Mercedes AMG faced the third round of the DTM season at the Norisring having won 12 times before, but with a big performance gap to their rivals. On Sunday evening, the Stuttgart manufacturer looks at the weekend with a pole position, two race victories and having closed the gap in the points’ standings.

The day started with Mercedes losing pole position to a strong Bruno Spengler in the last moments of the qualifying session. But the race showed that the pace of the C63 DTM was too much for their rivals, and the three-point star manufacturer finished the race with seven cars in the points.

Robert Wickens overtook team mate Christian Vietoris at the start, and it became only a matter of time that the Canadian would take the lead from Bruno Spengler. Wickens achieved his third victory in the DTM, whilst Vietoris completed the 1-2 finish, and was very pleased with what the result meant for the team: “Over the years, we’ve always been strong at the Norisring, but this weekend, we’ve had an incredibly fast car in all conditions. Second yesterday and first today: this has been a great weekend for me and the whole team.”

Lucas Auer also did a great job for the team, staying in the leading positions until he had to comply with a penalty, due to an infringement of the starting position. Still, the young Austrian recovered to finish in the points, starting his particular account in the series: “That was a super race. I got off to an incredible start and immediately overtook Mattias Ekström. After that, my pace was very good. Unfortunately, I was handed a five-second penalty which more or less ruined my race. But towards the end, I drove a good race against Jamie Green and Maxime Martin. So from that perspective, I’m well satisfied with the day.”

Ullrich Fritz, Head of DTM, highlighted the work of the teams and the drivers, which have allowed Mercedes to be back in contention for the titles: “We’ve just had the most perfect weekend at the Norisring, and I’d like to thank the whole team for that. After what happened at Lausitzring, this result comes as a huge relief. And obviously we are delighted that our successful run of entering the best-placed driver at the Norisring continues.”

After the third round of the season, Pascal Wehrlein is the best placed Mercedes driver in the standings, in fourth place with 57 points. In the manufacturers’ table, Mercedes has closed the gap to just 48 points behind Audi.