Even with having lost out in the initial stages of a very wet first DTM race at the Nürburgring earlier this afternoon, Mercedes-AMG Motorsport BWT’s Lucas Auer put himself back into the title hunt with a well-earned win at the Eifel-based circuit.
“That was a brutal race: rain, a drying track, then rain again. The whole day was very difficult, but the result is incredible,” admitted the 22-year-old, who now moves up into second place, a solitary point behind leader Mattias Ekström.
Auer also led home a Stuttgart 1-2-3-4, ahead of stablemates Paul di Resta, Robert Wickens and Maro Engel, whilst others faultered having chosen to switch to Hankook slicks, before a second deluge of rain in the latter stages caused havoc.
“At times, it was a bit confusing out there, because I emerged from the pits in P4 or P5 and I didn’t quite know what was going on. But that was in the heat of battle.”
The Austrian was able to surge his way back to the front, having been one of the field that decided to play it safe and stick with the wets, finding that he was able to get better pace in the latter phase of the race.
“Congratulations to the entire team – they have done a mega job today. A huge thank-you to everyone who has made this victory possible for me.”
The cumulative effort from Mercedes, which saw all six C63 AMG Coupés finish in the top ten, put the brand back ahead of BMW Motorsport in the constructors’ table. It also puts them just 94 points adrift from standings leader Audi Sport with five races of the season left.
“What an incredible race! Congratulations to Luggi, Paul, Rob and Maro on taking the top four places, but our best wishes also go especially to everyone in the team,” stated Mecedes-AMG Motorsport Head of DTM, Ulrich Fritz, who complimented the strategies employed by the team.
“We kept calm in situations that mattered and made the correct decisions. This was the right way to come back after the weekend in Zandvoort, for sure.”