Pascal Wehrlein relying on continued consistency to deliver title

HWA Mercedes driver Pascal Wehrlein scored a fifth place finish at the Nürburgring, but is non-complacent about his championship chances despite having a 37 point lead heading to the final round of the season, explaining “many things can happen”.”

The 20-year-old was the joint-highest scoring driver over the Nürburgring weekend, racking up 25 points, the same as race one and race two winners Maxime Martin and Miguel Molina, and so continued to build his championship lead, despite having so far achieved just two victories this season.

“You can’t win every race now in the DTM as everything is so close, and if you’re leading you get penalised with performance weights so you have to be consistent and score points in every race,” said Wehrlein to TouringCarTimes.

The German could have wrapped up the drivers’ title one weekend early today if he had been able to score victory in race two, especially with both of his closest contenders failing to score, but explains a set-up problem meant that was never a possibility.

“Today, first was not possible. We were not quick enough and we have to analyse that, as yesterday I was happier with the car. However, in the end I’m fifth and yesterday I was third, so it was a good performance.”

Wehrlein’s fifth came in part due to assistance from team-mates Maximilian Götz and Daniel Juncadella.

Although Wehrlein had passed Götz at the start, and had then made his way past the BMW of Augusto Farfus, a pit stop call which he believes came a lap late saw him held in the pit bay due to traffic and lost three positions back to Farfus, Götz and to Juncadella.

Wehrlein passed Farfus on the road, with the team then asking both Juncadella and Götz to allow Wehrlein past later in the race, also providing a rear-guard assistance against Audi’s Mike Rockenfeller, elevating him back to fifth position at the finish.

“We have to discuss that in the team meeting as I thought we were going to stop one lap earlier, so I lost three positions because of that and it wasn’t perfect and it was really hard to bring the fifth place home,” he explained.

Looking to his title aspirations, where with 50 points remaining and a 37 point lead over Edoardo Mortara he is now the clear favourite to win Mercedes first drivers’ title since Paul Di Resta in 2010, he added: “I’m confident but it’s not done. We can be happy with our situation at the moment, but still many things can happen in Hockenheim.”