Gary Paffett: “For me the rain was a godsend”

Mercedes AMG driver Gary Paffett achieved a hard earned second place at today’s race at Hockenheim, making the most of difficult conditions and conflicting situations to reach the podium.

The Team HWA driver started from seventh on the grid, making a good start to climb up to fourth, but losing out to team-mate Lucas Auer.

“The restart was a bit chaotic, I reacted to the ‘Go’ signal giving by race direction on the radio, but Rocky was ahead of me and he didn’t, so I had to go wide to avoid hitting him and then disaster happened,” said Paffett to TouringCarTimes. “I think it was too many of us going into the first corner, there were people going off and I ended up in P17. I decided to continue and see what could do from there.”

Rain started falling over the Baden-Wüttemberg track on lap nine, gradually increasing and with drivers uncertain of how to make strategic decisions. The ban on pit-to-car radio made matters worse.

“For me the rain was a godsend, as I have always been competitive in wet conditions, I was down on P14 and the lack of radio communications made it harder. Making a call about when to pit was difficult, as all we could do was for the team to show me the pit board asking ‘WET?’ and then I’s answer by radio ‘no, no, let’s stay’. I think we made the perfect call on the pit stop, waiting until there was enough rain. It has been like that the last few years, when it has been wet and I have been in a DTM car, I’ve been very good,” said Gary Paffett.

“After the pit stops I found myself in third position and I was very happy. I saw I was faster than Marco (Wittmann), so I tried to catch him, being able to take second place. When you see that you are lapping a second faster than the leader, the racer in you comes out and says to go for it, but second was a great result. The car has been excellent all weekend, the team has done a great job so yes, I’m very, very happy,” explained the Mercedes driver.

The Hockenheim race was the first real test of the changed regulations with increased power, revised aerodynamics and new controlled common parts.

“I really like driving the new car, in the qualifying sessions in the dry, it has more grip, we can push it harder. In the race you have to think about it a bit, the drivers have to work harder, so it’s more difficult for us but makes it more interesting, but it’s also a more interesting in terms of strategy, we saw yesterday Audi tried different things and how it worked out for them, so I’m sure it’s going to get a lot of people thinking in the next few weeks,” said Paffett.

After the season opener, Gary Paffett lies third in the drivers’ standings with 26 points.

“I’m really positive about the season, I qualified in second place yesterday and seventh today, but there is so much more potential, we have a very good car and throughout the testing and this weekend I have felt very happy, I’m always there, so I’m optimistic for the season,” concluded the Briton.