Robert Wickens unable to “push forwards” after difficult qualifying

Coming into the DTM event at the Nürburgring, Mercedes-AMG DTM’s Robert Wickens was a mere 12 points behind Team RMG’s Marco Wittmann, before the current points leader consolidated a further lead in the drivers’ standings, having dominated the first race of the weekend.

However, Wickens only managed to qualify 13th on the grid for the sprint race, and had to  make sure he scored some points towards his tally, which now sees the gap between the pair extend to 35 points.

“Today was not our day, unfortunately. I didn’t get things quite right in qualifying,” said the Quelph native, who was only able to start 13^th, which was further compromised by a lack of race pace, seeing his efforts take him up to ninth at the finish.

“That was my big problem, and then in the race, I simply didn’t have the pace. We must now analyse the data carefully. I made a good start and was in the points.“

Even with the performance weight working out more in BMW’s favour, it clearly showed for Wickens, whose fastest lap of the race was ninth tenths a second slower than Wittmann.

With that in mind after a difficult qualifying for the HWA driver, it was all about damage limitation towards his title efforts.

“That was my main goal, but I was struggling with the car and just could not push forwards.

“In view of everything that happened, I should be satisfied with P9, but it was a disappointing day as far as the championship goes.”

The final free practice session of the DTM race weekend at the Nürburgring starts at 10:40 CEST (BST + 1), lasting for 30 minutes.