Gary Paffett extends lead and equals Mattias Ekström in number of wins

Gary Paffett scored his third victory of the season today, extending his championship lead and also equalling with Mattias Ekström as the DTM driver with third most victories on 23 behind Bernd Scheider and Klaus Ludwig on 43 and 37.

“I think he (Ekström) was watching the race and I think he’ll have a smile on his face to see me achieving this mark, he’ll be pleased about that,” Paffett told TouringCarTimes. “We have been close during all this years. At Hockenheim he said that I would probably score more wins than me but that he still would have more podiums, so we still have this rivalry even though he isn’t racing anymore.”

One of the main questions for Zandvoort was how the particular features of the track, sandy and warm would affect the tyres with the 2018-specification aerodynamics. Paffett was relieved about the issue: “The tyre degradation didn’t seem too much than normal, but then we had the safety car to break the race, so we didn’t see the degradation we could have expected for a complete race. All seemed pretty much under control here.”

“It’s quite difficult to drive the car around here, especially because of the wind which can get quite gustily, so you have to concentrate more as it’s easier to make a mistake around here,” added the Briton.

Paffett has 127 points to his account, 21 over fellow Mercedes driver Paul di Resta in second place. Still, the Briton refuses to think he has an advantage for the championship: “I’m not unstoppable, I haven’t won every race. When we have got it right we’ve done quite well, we have worked hard for every single point, nobody has given us anything, so we have to keep pushing. Even after a perfect day today, we still have to go back, look at the car and improve slightly for tomorrow.

“This is what we, as a team, do. We don’t rest on our laurels, we are always working hard. The mechanics are working hard in the details and in the pit stops, and that’s why the results are coming, thanks to hard work and good engineering,” added Paffett.

“We are still at half point in the season, someone could start doing now what I’ve done so far and I could not score any more points, so we have to just keep working hard. Maybe at Hockenheim I’ll think about the championship, but not now.”

“Possibly the changes in this year suit better my driving style. I started the season with the same motivation as always and it was important to have a good Hockenheim, it sets you on the good path and this is everything is going better this season.”

Di Resta has been slowly climbing up in the standings. Asked about the rivalry between the two, Paffett said: “We haven’t had any direct fights, we are racers and we respect each other, so everything is ok in that sense.”

Head of DTM at Mercedes AMG Ulrich Fritz added: “We haven’t given any orders to our drivers beyond to keep it clean and not crash into each other, apart from that we are showing a good performance and showing a good sporting attitude to defend, so this is how it will be.”

Mercedes AMG has also extended their lead in the manufacturers’ championship with 497 points, 164 ahead of BMW Motorsport and 364 over Audi Sport.