Mercedes has a good and hard race at Hockenheim
Mercedes AMG enjoyed a solid start of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season with a double podium finish in the first race held at Hockenheim this afternoon.
Pascal Wehrlein was second, and thinks he made the most of starting with used tyres: “I would have preferred to win, but I lost position early in the race and then was third. I knew things would be tough at the start, because I was on used tyres. I was fast towards the end, though, so I took second place back again.”
Paul Di Resta completed the podium in third place, putting the success down to the hard setup work done during the winter: “Pascal and I had good speed, and we were able to match the race leader for pace. Over the last few laps, I was having some problems with my brakes, but a podium is a good way to start the season. All the hard work of recent months has paid off, and it’s something we can build on. Many thanks to the team who have worked so hard to achieve this success.”
The race was full of excitement, with numerous contacts and incidents which constituted the other side of the coin for Mercedes. Christian Vietoris was 14th, with Maximilian Götz 16th on his DTM debut.
The worst part for the Stuttgart manufacturer was when both Gary Paffett and Lucas Auer were eliminated in the same incident, because of a collision with Martin Tomczyk. The Briton was pragmatic about the outcome of the race: “Not a happy day for me, unfortunately. I had to start the race from the back, but my pace was fine. I fought my way up into twelfth place and put a good manoeuvre over on Martin Tomczyk. He lost the car in the hairpin on the next lap and hit me.”
Robert Wickens and Daniel Juncadella also had to retire because of damage from several collisions. The Canadian found himself with an undriveable car, retiring in the pits. The Spaniard had his suspension damaged from a number of contacts, losing his Mercedes AMG C63 DTM at the Sachs turn, and being forced into retirement.
Ulrich Fritz, Head of DTM at the three-point star manufacturer lamented losing so many cars due to incidents, and expects another complicated day tomorrow: “With two of our drivers on the podium, I certainly think we are entitled to talk of a good start to the new season. The team has been rewarded for all the hard work that was put in over the winter months. Pascal and Paul drove a great race. But it’s really annoying that we lost so many cars through no fault of our own. The crew is now going to be very busy getting the cars back in shape for tomorrow. I suspect that tomorrow’s race will be a similarly hard-fought contest.”
