Mercedes AMG arrives in Moscow as championship leaders

The summer break is over and the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters is back this weekend, with the Moscow Raceway hosting the sixth round of the 2015 season. After yesterday’s ruling by the DMSB, Mercedes AMG arrives in Russia as leaders of the Manufacturers’ table.

The 3.931-kilometre circuit hasn’t suited the Stuttgart manufacturer in the past, featuring a flat succession of low and medium speed corners. However, and with a new found level of competitiveness in the C63 DTM, the Mercedes squad is hopeful of a good result.

The season has been encouraging so far for the three-point star manufacturer, who has been a regular visitor to the podium, and who dominated the weekend at Norisring. The pair formed by Pascal Wehrlein and Christian Vietoris at HWA AG has been particularly successful, allowing the formation to lead the Teams’ table with 150 points, 12 more than Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline.

Yesterday’s DMSB ruling, which penalises Audi by deleting their points from the second race at Spielberg, has allowed Mercedes to jump to the lead in the all important Manufacturers’ table. The Stuttgart squad now has 380 points in their account, 43 more than their Ingolstadt rivals.

Pascal Wehrlein is the best placed driver for Mercedes in the Drivers’ standings in third place, with a total of 94 points, 17 less than leader Mattias Ekström. The 20-year old is eager to get back in the cockpit and return to track action, having put aside the events from Spielberg, when he was taken out on the last lap whilst he was in fifth position: “My current position in the championship is very promising. That increases the anticipation going into the second half of the season all the more, of course. I’ve come to terms with what happened at Spielberg and hope that I can convert the negative experiences into positive energy for the next few races.”

Robert Wickens, winner in Norisring, is keen on improving his past results in Moscow, seeking to continue scoring points for Mercedes: “Our car is much better this year than in 2014 and 2013, so hopefully this weekend we can get a different outcome and score some good points on both days. As far as I’m concerned, I just want to finish the race. It’s been four races in a row now without finishing. Most of the time due to things beyond my control.”

Ullrich Fritz, Head of Mercedes AMG DTM, pragmatically chooses to focus on getting the job done and improving past results, with an eye on the championship. After the collective test at Spielberg after the fifth round of the championship, Fritz hopes to have made a step forward: “We have used the time to concentrate further on our performance. We hope that we will also give a good account of ourselves in Russia, just as we have done in the last few races. When you’ve been leading the driver and team standings up to the halfway mark in the season, it’s obviously the intention to keep the championship open for as long as possible.”

The sixth round of the 2015 DTM season gets underway this Friday with the first Free Practice session taking place at 15:00 local time, (GMT + 3).