Photo: DTM Media

Mercedes satisfied with Gary Paffett’s strong performance

By

Mercedes AMG had a mixed day today at the Red Bull Ring, host of the fifth round of the 2015 DTM season. Whilst they were able to celebrate a strong performance by Gary Paffett to finish in second place, a last lap incident saw Robert Wickens and Pascal Wehrlein taken out of the race with a few corners left to the chequered flag.

Gary Paffett knew from the morning that he could be quick in the rain. The Briton qualified in third place for the grid, after being blocked several times during qualifying due to people making mistakes in front of him. In the race, the ART GP driver overtook Mike Rockenfeller for the second place and was able to close into Mattias Ekström, until a yellow flag five minutes from the end halted his progress.

Paffett was satisfied with the close fight he had with Ekström, proving himself competitive once more: “That was a very good race. It would, of course, have been even nicer to finish on top, but Matthias and I pushed each other. I got closer and closer to him and thought I’d catch him, but then he countered and so, it was obvious that it wasn’t going to be possible. It was a tough race in difficult conditions, but I’m pleased with the result.”

Local hero Lucas Auer had a difficult day yesterday, but was able to improve today under the tricky weather conditions. The 20-year old finished in seventh place in front of his home crowd, and was happy to continue his learning curve in the DTM: “If someone had said to me yesterday that I would finish seventh today, I would have signed on the dotted line. Today’s race proved once again that the rain is totally unpredictable. I coped relatively well, much better than in qualifying. I’ve learned a lot once again this weekend and hope that things will now continue on this positive note.”

Maximilian Götz, Christian Vietoris and Paul Di Resta closed the top ten in the race, which gave Mercedes a good amount of points.

Ullrich Fritz, Head of DTM for the Stuttgart manufacturer, was again satisfied to see a good performance converted into a solid result: “I’m pleased for Gary that he was able to drive a very good race and secure P2. Basically, we were able to turn in a very strong performance during the whole weekend in Spielberg.”

Mercedes AMG is still second in the Manufacturers’ table, with 331 points, 76 less than Audi Sport. In the Teams’ standings, the HWA AG pair of gooix/Original Teile leads the classification with 148 points.