Paul Di Resta praises team effort for first win since 2010

Paul Di Resta was back to old times today, scoring the pole position and his first victory in nearly six years. The Scot from Mercedes AMG drove a flawless race, but the day wasn’t exempt from drama.

The number 3 C63 DTM had developed gearbox issues, with the HWA mechanics having to replace the unit, which took most of the night. “The team has worked fantastically” Di Resta told TouringCarTimes. The mechanics had to stay up until 5 in the morning to change my gearbox, and they gave me a really competitive car today.”

The pace of the new C63 DTM has been one of the positive talking points of the weekend, with the Mercedes cars showing good speed in straight line, despite the problems fitting the new bodywork to the old chassis. Di Resta said: “The car felt very good today, and I knew that if I made it to the first corner in the lead, I had a good chance of winning the race. To be honest, we didn’t expect to be so competitive compared to Audi.”

The Scot made a quick evaluation of what the year has been so far, and how a new and improved way of thinking in Mercedes has led the team to be at the front: “It’s a great feeling to have won, especially since it had been so long since the last time. Still, it shows how things have been done at Mercedes, we made changes and restructured the team to maximise our potential. We had a good end of the year last season, and it’s good to have a strong start this year. If you look at our drivers, our pace is consistent and there is some stability in our performance, which gives us confidence for the season ahead.”

After a fourth place yesterday and today’s victory, Paul Di Resta now leads the Drivers’ standings, with 37 points.