Tales from the paddock – Paul Di Resta

Milestone for Paul Di Resta: The 2010 DTM champion joined the exclusive 100 Club at Zandvoort

• This is what happened: Weekend results and facts
• News from the Mercedes-AMG Motorsport teams
• Three questions for Paul Di Resta
• Social media news: What’s new online?
• This week’s important dates and events

This is what happened: Results and facts

• Blancpain GT Series Asia: Two podium finishes (P3 in Race 1 and victory in Race 2) for Maximilian Buhk and Hunter Abbott at the Fuji Speedway
• VLN: Fourth place for Lucas Stolz, Renger van der Zande and Edward Sandström on the Nordschleife

News snippets

Next stop, the Ardennes: Next weekend, Formula 1 resumes after its summer break. At the beginning of the second half of the year, the drivers are in for a real treat: the legendary Spa-Francorchamps roller-coaster through the Ardennes forest. The longest track on the race calendar has proved to be a happy hunting ground for the Silver Arrows over the past two years, with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg each having lifted a winner’s trophy. In qualifying too, as the last four pole positions have all been claimed by a Silver Arrows driver – Lewis and Nico basically taking it in turns. The legendary Juan Manuel Fangio brought Mercedes their maiden victory on this track in 1955. In total, nine wins have gone to cars powered by Mercedes engines.

The 100 Club: For Paul Di Resta, the race weekend in Zandvoort represented a minor milestone as the 2010 champion competed in his 100th DTM race. Although a technical issue thwarted a decent result on this occasion, the Scotsman can look back on eight victories, seven pole positions, nine fastest race laps, 29 podium appearances and 62 points finishes in his DTM career to date. This season, Paul won the second race at the Hungaroring in Budapest.

Watch video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yItZIM9Gn8M

Title fight at Zandvoort: The battle for the 2017 FIA Formula 3 European Championship title continues. On the seventh weekend of the season at Zandvoort, four of the podium places went to Mercedes-AMG-powered drivers. Two of them were claimed by Mercedes-AMG Motorsport DTM test and reserve driver Maximilian Günther, who is currently second in the championship on 302 points. “The podium places bring important points with them, but second and third places are not what we set out to do,” says Günther. “I want to win more races, and the title remains my clear objective.” In the second race, Callum Ilott and Jake Hughes scored a one-two success in cars powered by Mercedes-AMG Formula 3 engines.

Successful weekend on the Nürburgring Nordschleife: The Mercedes-AMG GT4 took the win in the SPX class on its Nürburgring-Nordschleife debut. Fabian Hamprecht, Mercedes-AMG test and development driver Thomas Jäger and Mike Stursberg (all GER) steered the number 54 car entered by Mercedes-AMG test team Uwe Alzen Automotive to 16th in the general classification on the fifth weekend of the VLN endurance championship. In the 168-strong starter field, the Mercedes-AMG test team BLACK FALCON also showed the potential of the new family member. After starting from 50th on the grid, Mercedes-AMG test and development driver Jan Seyffarth (GER) made a magnificent charge through the field to hand the number 52 Mercedes-AMG GT4 over to team-mate Alexander Toril (ESP) in 16th position. The Spaniard and two German team-mates Fidel Leib and Stefan Karg put in further race kilometres before having to retire one hour from the end with minor technical problems.

HARIBO Racing Team Mercedes-AMG in the number 8 Mercedes-AMG GT3 secured fourth place in the general classification, while Edward Sandström (SWE), Luca Stolz (GER) and Renger van der Zande (NED) missed the podium by just eleven seconds after six hours out on track. Rounding off this highly respectable set of results were customer racing team BLACK FALCON in sixth place. Mercedes-AMG drivers Adam Christodoulou (GBR), Hubert Haupt and Manuel Metzger (both GER) shared the cockpit of the number 7 Mercedes-AMG GT3. The next race on the 2017 VLN calendar will be held on September 2nd.

Victory in the Blancpain GT Series Asia: Mercedes-AMG driver Maximilian Buhk (GER) together with Hunter Abbott (GBR) secured victory in the second race at the Fuji International Speedway in Japan. Their number 999 Mercedes-AMG GT3 had already finished third the day before, continuing the run of success for customer racing team GruppeM Racing. With four races remaining this season, GruppeM Racing lead the championship on 85 points. Abbott is also handily placed in the drivers’ championship after this third victory of the season. The Englishman goes into the last part of the campaign with a lead of 33 points. Meanwhile, Buhk’s second victory in the Blancpain GT Series Asia takes him up to fourth place. The next event is booked for the Shanghai International Circuit in China on the weekend of 23rd/24th September.

Three questions for Paul Di Resta

Paul, how does it feel to be looking back on 100 DTM races?

Paul Di Resta: It obviously makes you feel a bit older achieving that. But it’s a big part of my life, and I did all of it with Mercedes-AMG. I would obviously have liked to have done another 100 races for them in the DTM, but unfortunately Mercedes have decided to pull out of the DTM at the end of next year. Hopefully, we can make what time we’ve got left memorable.

Which are your Top Three DTM races – the ones you’ll have the fondest memories of?

Paul Di Resta: My first win at the Lausitzring in 2008 is always a big one. Then I would say China in 2010, where I won the championship, and probably my first DTM race at Hockenheim in 2007. Gary and I made it a one-two win for Mercedes, and my P2 behind Gary was enough for me to take the title.

What were the most pleasant but also the most difficult moments for you during a DTM weekend?

Paul Di Resta: My worst moment was probably losing the championship in 2008 because we had a clutch failure in the first race and we missed the championship by just four points. Without that problem, it might ultimately have been enough. The best one for sure was winning the championship in 2010.

Social Media News

#Summer Break: As we look forward to the resumption of the Formula 1 season with the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, we answer an intriguing question: What really goes on during the F1 summer break?

Watch video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MXQw1RgbPw

#ShowCar: What do you need when you are laying on a spectacular F1 show at the world’s classiest motorsport event? More than you might imagine. We take a look behind the scenes and follow our F1 Show Car team around at Goodwood.

Watch video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=inqZzMeMPl8

#SkidPan: What happens when you turn a Formula 1 world champion loose in a powerful AMG on a skid pan? Lewis Hamilton demonstrates…

Watch video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn1Rz2WLm9U

#ThoreVisits: In the latest episode of ‘Thore Visits’, our eponymous presenter meets up with Edoardo Mortara. In the third and last part of our series, Thore and Edo go for a trip on Lake Geneva. As the saying goes: Racing drivers are addicted to speed, whether they are on land or water.

Watch Part 2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-UpBgseFIE

Watch Part 3: www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9c_xoYZLxQ

Upcoming events & dates

Source : Mercedes.com

Comments

comments