DTM Nurburgring: Robert Wickens win for Mercedes
Posted 18th August, 2013 in Motorsport, Videos | Leave a comment
Mercedes Junior Robert Wickens conquered the difficult weather conditions to secure his maiden DTM victory at the Nurburgring today.
Starting from seventh on the grid, Wickens soon worked his way up to fourth before passing Augusto Farfus and Adrien Tambay for second behind Mike Rockenfeller. The Audi driver had fallen to the back of the field after sliding off at the first corner, but came in for wet tyres before anyone else – and before the pit had window opened. So even though he was leading he had to complete three stops as opposed to everybody else’s two. Wickens moved into first place while Rockenfeller made his last stop.
Poleman Augusto Farfus, who had initially lead the race in his BMW M3, ran a smooth race, coming home just two seconds behind Wickens, while Mercedes’ Christian Vietoris took the third step of the podium after starting from eighth.
Rockenfeller eventually finished fourth, extending his lead in the championship to 35 points ahead of Christian Vietoris (71) and Robert Wickens (70). BMW’s Martin Tomczyk did very well to round out the top five after starting from 20th. The German battled his way through the field to grab his first points since last year’s Nurburgring round.
“It feels absolutely fantastic to have won the race at the Nürburgring. I started from seventh position and honestly did not really know what to expect. Then came the rain and everything got a bit crazy. For a while, I didn’t know what position I was in and how fast I was going. But then I was able to overtake the three cars in front of me, which brought me success in the end,” said a jubilant Wickens.
DTM Nurburgring result
1. Robert Wickens HWA Mercedes 1h15m33.710s
2. Augusto Farfus RBM BMW +2.158s
3. Christian Vietoris HWA Mercedes +9.749s
4. Mike Rockenfeller Phoenix Audi +20.524s
5. Martin Tomczyk RMG BMW +27.104s
6. Adrien Tambay Abt Audi +27.523s
7. Marco Wittmann MTEK BMW +29.540s
8. Miguel Molina Phoenix Audi +33.037s
9. Jamie Green Abt Audi +39.972s
10. Pascal Wehrlein Mucke Mercedes +40.486s
11. Filipe Albuquerque Rosberg Audi +40.908s
12. Edoardo Mortara Rosberg Audi +42.629s
13. Mattias Ekstrom Abt Audi +46.303s
14. Bruno Spengler Schnitzer BMW +51.991s
15. Dirk Werner Schnitzer BMW +57.649s
16. Andy Priaulx RMG BMW +1m21.517s
17. Gary Paffett HWA Mercedes +1 lap
18. Timo Glock MTEK BMW +1 lap
19. Roberto Merhi HWA Mercedes +1 lap
[Source: Mercedes-Benz]
