Lucas Auer celebrates his birthday as the strongest driver for Mercedes

Mercedes AMG driver Lucas Auer was, for the second day running, the fastest man for the Stuttgart manufacturer at the Nürburgring. The young Austrian scored his third DTM career pole and drove a strong race to finish second, whilst celebrating his 22nd birthday.

Auer started well, making a defensive move to keep BMW’s Marco Wittmann behind. The standings leader was unable to catch the Team Mücke driver. With eight laps to the end of the race, Audi’s Edoardo Mortara, with fresher tyres, caught up with Auer and managed to overtake at Turn 1. The Austrian would be second at the chequered flag.

“I’m very happy to have driven a strong race and managing to get a good result for the team and for Mercedes” Auer told TouringCarTimes. “We had a good setup and things flowed well during the race.”

Despite the Mercedes being a lot heavier than his rivals, Auer managed to perform well all weekend, but also significantly being significantly faster than his fellow Mercedes drivers. The Austrian said: “For me, the weight is not important. I like this circuit and I do well here, for me it’s just a question of getting in the car and driving. For sure we have to look at what the others can do to improve, but for me it was easy.”

Team Mücke has been on an ascending line this season. Asked about what they have been doing differently, Lucas Auer said: “The victory in Lausitzring was a catalyst for the team, and they have been more motivated since then. I’m grateful to Mercedes and Mücke for giving me this great car.”

Ulrich Fritz, Head of DTM for Mercedes AMG, added: “We cannot say what Lucas has done differently this weekend, his performance looks like a miracle. But we will definitely look into it to try to find ways to improve for the rest of the team.”

Lucas Auer completed a strong weekend in the DTM, and is the fourth best driver of Mercedes AMG so far, in 11th place in the standings.