DTM Hockenheim: 'Surprise' win proves doubters wrong, says Mercedes
Mercedes says its "surprising" dominant victory in the 2018 DTM season opener at Hockenheim was important to prove it is putting all its efforts into its final season in the series
Gary Paffett took pole position by almost two-tenths of a second and was the first of four Mercedes to qualify inside the top 10.
Paffett then beat Lucas Auer in an intra-team battle, with the pair running well ahead of podium finisher and BMW driver Timo Glock.
Mercedes DTM boss Ulrich Fritz told Autosport it was important to make a statement about its DTM commitments.
"I expected a really tough battle here at Hockenheim and for the whole season with these cars," he said.
"To be honest, to be so far upfront - today at least - is quite surprising for us.
"I'm really happy for the team in the circumstances, with the DTM exit, they really showed some of the messages given from other people saying 'Mercedes would not pull all the effort into it'.
"We really showed that we can do better [than that] and it was a great result and a great start to the season.
"We are here to win, not just finalise our relationship with DTM. It's a good start to the season and we go from there."
Paffett said that he was trying not to think about 2018 as the final DTM season for himself and Mercedes.
"I keep trying to forget about the last year because I want to focus on racing and I did that today," he said. "It's great to start the year like this, we need to keep it going."
He added that it was impossible to predict the pace of Mercedes against BMW and Audi, with the latter struggling throughout Saturday.
"In qualifying it was a good lap," Paffet said. "But to be two-tenths clear of second place is a lot, it's a big gap.
"[I'm] really pleased and a little bit surprised, you never know how good you're going to be in testing.
"You never really know [where you stand] until that first qualifying session and it was really pleasing to see we had a quick car and it was great to start on pole.
"The car was pretty much the same balance that it was in qualifying [in the race] and I could drive it as hard as I wanted to.
"Overall, it's surprising, but it showed our race pace is exceptional."
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Stroll: I need to look to myself to beat F1 team-mate Perez
The one thing W Series needs in 2020 to continue its rise
Abbie Eaton admits being wrong about W Series negativity
Bottas: Permanent fix for Sauber F1 pitstop woes "by Imola"
Quartararo: Marquez's Honda MotoGP exit "woke a lot of people up" at Yamaha
How national entries in the first month of the season stack up
COTA: F1 and MotoGP double-header possible but not probable
Autosport writers' most memorable moments of 2022
The plug in and play stand-ins who got their timing just right
The longest-serving Red Bull driver revealing F1’s true brutality
How the DTM has come back stronger from its Norisring nadir
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments