Edoardo Mortara is hoping that he can build upon his maiden victory in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters and take further victories in the races ahead – after tasting the victory champagne in only his 14th start.
Mortara withstood heavy pressure from reigning champion Martin Tomczyk and former champion Gary Paffett to take Audi to its first race win in 2012. On the back of his first-ever pole position in Saturday’s qualifying session, Sunday’s race was not only the first victory for Mortara but also the first for Audi Sport Team Rosberg, and the first for Team Rosberg since 1995.
“That was a fantastic weekend,” said Italian Mortara. “My first pole position yesterday and my first victory today – I’m simply super-happy. Thank you to Audi Sport and thank you to Team Rosberg – my guys worked incredibly hard in the past few weeks and months.
“This is the first reward today. I’m hoping for things to continue this way because I think we learned a lot here at Spielberg and made a major step forward. The battle with Gary was tough – but when you’re in contention for victory you won’t give in easily.”
Audi’s victory at the Red Bull Ring means that all three manufacturers have won in 2012 – demonstrating the unpredictability of the series this year. For the Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich Mortara’s win comes as a welcome relief after the brand has shown strong pace in 2012 but, until this weekend, failed to capitalise in the races.
“Winning such a thrilling race is particularly enjoyable,” said Ullrich. “That was first-class advertisement for the DTM, for the Red Bull Ring and for Audi. Our A5 DTM was the measure of all things here. We were running in front in all the practice sessions, posted the fastest race lap and ‘Edo’ perfectly converted his first pole position into his first victory. He had to fight a hard battle for this success that was a very important one for all of us.
“In the past few weeks, the entire team intensively worked on making us return to the very top of the DTM. Congratulations also to Audi Sport Team Rosberg that has been waiting for this day for a long time and worked hard for it as well.”