Third DTM victory for Wickens

Christian Vietoris (Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM) completes Mercedes-Benz double by finishing second

Seven Mercedes-AMG drivers in Top 9

Mercedes-AMG DTM team secure five of six possible podium places at the race weekend in Nuremberg

Robert Wickens: “Second yesterday and first today: this has been a great weekend for me and the whole team.”

Second race, second victory for the Mercedes-AMG DTM Team during season highlight at the Norisring in Nuremberg. After Mercedes-AMG took the top four positions in the first race on Saturday, Robert Wickens (SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM) and Christian Vietoris (Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM) achieved a one-two win in the second race of the weekend.

Wickens achieved his third victory in the DTM and his second on the Bavarian street circuit in front of 123,000 spectators who came through the gates this weekend. For Mercedes-Benz, this was their 13th victory at the Norisring since 2003. Five out of six possible podiums in all were taken by the Mercedes-AMG DTM Team this weekend.

A strong team result for the brand with the star was rounded off by Pascal Wehrlein (gooix Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM), Paul Di Resta (Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM), Gary Paffett (EURONNICS Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM) and Daniel Juncadella (PETRONAS Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM), who finished fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth respectively.

The Austrian Lucas Auer (BWT Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM) was one of the leading group of drivers in the first stint of the race. He served a 5-second penalty and then fought his way back up during the rest of the race after his pit stop to place ninth. So, seven of the eight Mercedes-AMG drivers finished in the points.

His home race ended prematurely for DTM rookie Maximilian Götz (Mercedes AMG-DTM C 63). He retired with a radiator problem after a contact in the early stages.

The next race weekend: The fourth race weekend of the 2015 DTM season is on the programme in just two weeks’ time when the DTM will be staged from July 10th-12th at the well established Dutch circuit in Zandvoort.

Comments after the race

Robert Wickens (26, Canada):

“What a race! I got off to a good start and moved up from third to second. After that, I was faster than Bruno ahead of me and managed to overtake him as well. Over the years, we’ve always been strong at the Norisring, but this weekend, we’ve had an incredibly fast car in all conditions. Second yesterday and first today: this has been a great weekend for me and the whole team.”

Christian Vietoris (26, Germany):

“I’m really proud of the team. We were very strong in qualifying, both yesterday and today in a variety of conditions. In the race, I managed to pull out a gap between myself and Mattias Ekström. Unfortunately, I lost a bit of time on Robert during the pit stop. All the same, I’m very pleased to standing on the podium. We had a strong car for the whole of the weekend. What goes for Robert also goes for me: fourth yesterday and second today. The bottom line is that it was a great weekend for me.”

Pascal Wehrlein (20, Germany):

“After yesterday’s win, I’m not totally satisfied with fifth position. It was difficult to get past the drivers ahead of me because we all had DRS and we were all effectively holding each other up. So we then went with another strategy and pitted early. Unfortunately, the tyre needs two laps on this track before it is properly up to temperature and runs faster. But then the other drivers took their pit stops immediately after me, which meant that I lost touch. Towards the end, I was able to match their lap times, but the time differences are so minimal on this track that it’s difficult to close a gap of that size.”

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