Photo: DTM Media

Paul Di Resta targets extending championship lead at the Lausitzring

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This weekend takes place the third round of the 2016 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season at Lausitzring. Mercedes AMG driver Paul Di Resta leads the standings by a narrow margin, which he hopes to increase at the track located Southeast of Berlin.

Last round of the DTM at Spielberg was disastrous for the Stuttgart outfit. Still, the close competition this year allowed Paul Di Resta to leave the Styrian track as the championship leader, albeit with only three points over Audi’s Edoardo Mortara.

Di Resta hopes that the atmosphere in the team won’t affect the possibilities Mercedes AMG has in a track traditionally favourable to the three-point star manufacturer: “”e have a real challenge ahead of us. The objective is to extend my championship lead and reward the guys on the team for all their hard work. At the moment, there is a lot of tension between the drivers, which has spilled over from the track.”

Robert Wickens, who resurged at Hockenheim after a difficult 2015, thinks the key is in getting it right at the increasingly competitive qualifying sessions: “Spielberg was a bit of a disaster for us. For some reason, we didn’t get it together in qualifying. I think that, if we had started from further forward, we could have come away with quite a few points. Now we’re off to the Lausitzring. I’m feeling upbeat about the weekend. I’m fast, and I’ve already put in some good race performances this season. If we get our act together in qualifying, we can once again produce some decent results this weekend.”

Team ART’s Gary Paffett is more concerned over driver standards: “I’m optimistic that we can once again produce the kind of performance at the Lausitzring that we expect of ourselves.I think that there should be more consistent penalties for moves like Timo Scheider’s in Spielberg in the future. If we come across each other again, I hope that the outcome will be fairer this time.”

Both Christian Vietoris and Maximilian Götz arrive to Lausitzring pumped up after a very competitive performance in the Nürburgring 24-hour race held at the Eifel track last weekend, finishing second and third overall after challenging for the lead.

Mercedes AMG counts 11 victories at the Lausitzring, being the strongest manufacturer at the track. Ulrich Fritz, Head of DTM for the squad, hopes Mercedes will come out on top in an important weekend for motor racing fans: “The DTM and GT Masters are coming together on one circuit, so that can justifiably be described as a motorsport festival. It would obviously be fantastic if we finished the weekend with a Mercedes on top in both series. In any case, we’ve put Spielberg behind us. At the Lausitzring, we’ll be doing our level best to be out at the front again. The ultimate aim is, of course, to extend our championship lead and score as many points as possible.”

Action at the Lausitzring kicks off at 16:30 CEST on Friday afternoon for the first free practice.