Mercedes DTM: Zandvoort 2017 – Race 1

Paul Di Resta (Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM) and Gary Paffett (Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM Mercedes me) finish in Top Eight

• Paul Di Resta (Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM) places seventh in his 99th DTM race
• Gary Paffett (Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM Mercedes me) in P8 also scores points
• Paul Di Resta: “I don’t think that today’s result shows a clear picture. Today, we achieved just about all we could have.”
• Ulrich Fritz: “For tomorrow, we need to ensure that we qualify further forward. Otherwise, we’re going to have the same problems we had today.”

The DTM is back in action this weekend at the dunes circuit in Zandvoort following the end of the summer break. Paul Di Resta (Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM) finished seventh in the 13th race of the season as the second half of the season got under way. The 2010 DTM champion will contest his 100th DTM race in the second round at Zandvoort on Sunday.

His Mercedes-AMG Motorsport team-mate, Gary Paffett (Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM Mercedes me) overtook René Rast (Audi) in the final stages of the race and also achieved a points-scoring finish in eighth place. This was the 2005 DTM champion’s 16th race at the track in Zandvoort where he has previously won three times.

Last year’s winner, Robert Wickens (Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM Mercedes me), and Edoardo Mortara (BWT Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM) finished the first race of the weekend in P11 and P12 respectively. Lucas Auer (BWT Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM) came home in 15th place, one position up on Maro Engel (SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM). After a contact with Jamie Green (Audi) in the initial stages of the race, the winner of Sunday’s round in Budapest crossed the finish line in P16.

Looking ahead to race 2: The 14th round of the 2017 DTM season starts on Sunday at 15:18 CEST (live on ARD TV at 15:00 CEST). Third practice will take place before that at 08:50 CEST followed by the second qualifying at 12:00 CEST (live on One at 11:55 CEST). During each race weekend, we will provide live timing data, live commentary, fan voting and exclusive behind-the-scenes videos of the Mercedes-AMG Motorsport DTM Team on our website at: www.mercedes-amg-motorsport.com/dtm.

Comments after the race

Paul Di Resta (31, Scotland):

• P7
• Car number: 3
• Team: SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG Motorsport
• Car: Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM

“I don’t think that today’s result shows a clear picture. It was a difficult qualifying session, but we’ll regroup tomorrow. The car was very strong, and I think we can probably attack a bit more. Today, we achieved just about all we could have. The main thing is that we took some points off Rast by way of damage limitation to help Lucas. Anyway, onwards to tomorrow, which will hopefully be a better day. The BMW looks strong here, but our engineers will bang their heads together to maybe come up with something that can help.” < /p>

Gary Paffett (36, England):

• P8
• Car number: 2
• Team: Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Mercedes me
• Car: Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM Mercedes me

“I started in P8 and finished in P8. We got some points, but I really wanted to move forward in the race, and I thought we had the car to do so. The start of the race was OK, and I held my position. I was being backed up by Farfus, and Duval was slowing us down on purpose, backing us up from the leader, which was frustrating. After the pit stop, Paul managed to overtake me, and then I followed him around for the whole race. It was really disappointing overall, because I thought we could have had a really strong race.”& amp; amp; lt; /p>

Robert Wickens (28, Canada):

• P11
• Car number: 6
• Team: Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Mercedes me
• Car: Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM Mercedes me

“It was a tough race. The start was average. I maintained my position, but I didn’t make any forward progress either. That was already a little bit of a disappointment. After that, I feel my pace was really strong. I was able to keep up with Rast and Duval. At the beginning, I was quite a bit quicker than them, but there was just no chance to overtake. Then I came out of the pits behind everybody else and had a lot of catching up to do. I caught the pack on the last lap, but there was nothing I could do from there. I think the team deserved points today.”

Edoardo Mortara (30, Italy):

• P12
• Car number: 48
• Team: BWT Mercedes-AMG Motorsport
• Car: BWT Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM

“That was a very frustrating Saturday for me. The problem always seems to be the same. We are unable to qualify further up the field. In the race, we then get stuck behind other drivers. My pace is better, but I can’t get past. It’s particularly difficult here at Zandvoort, but it’s no use complaining. We just have to qualify further forwards. If we could do that, then things would be much easier for me. I hope we can find out what the problem is soon, and then we can resolve the issue. I believe the potential is there, but we can’t take advantage of it yet for some reason or other.”& amp; amp; lt; /p>

Lucas Auer (22, Austria):

• P15
• Car number: 22
• Team: BWT Mercedes-AMG Motorsport
• Car: BWT Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM

“Today was really tough, for sure. There’s not much more to say. It was hard, but that’s all part of it. That’s racing. Tomorrow is another day, fortunately. We’ll have the data analysed by then and will turn things round.”

Maro Engel (31, Germany):

• P16
• Car number: 63
• Team: SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG Motorsport
• Car: SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM

“Jamie Green pushed me off the track in Turn 7 on the first lap. It was a mega-dangerous situation and, from my perspective, it was totally out of order. I then had a minor brush with the barrier. Although I was able to carry on, my car was severely damaged. That effectively ended my race. The crew now have a lot of work ahead of them. If you’re doing 200kph over the gravel bed, things are going to get broken on your car – especially when you also go clattering into a barrier. It’s frustrating, but tomorrow is another day, and we’ll try to get more out of it.”

Ulrich Fritz, Head of Mercedes-AMG Motorsport DTM:

“We were never going to finish any higher than seventh today. Hardly any of the drivers made any significant mistakes, which obviously makes it very difficult to overtake on a narrow track like Zandvoort. I think what we saw was a highly strategic race. The most surprising aspect was how well the tyres held up. For tomorrow, we need to ensure that we qualify further forward. Otherwise, we’re going to have the same problems we had today.

Race results: Top Ten

Drivers‘ Championship

Manufacturers‘ Championship

Teams‘ Championship

Source : Mercedes.com

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