Things may be going remarkably well for the German marque in Formula 1 at the moment; but up until now, the same thing can’t be said for the Mercedes DTM German Touring Car teams. The first race of the season at the Hockenheimring did not get off to a great start with the majority of Mercedes drivers qualifying in the last few rows of the grid with veteran driver Gary Paffett qualifying highest up the field in 14th while Vitaly Petrov was last. The race did not provide for much enthusiasm either with the Audi and BMW teams streaking away, with the win eventually going to BMW’s Marco Wittmann as Pascal Werhlein finished in 11th and highest of the Mercedes runners. To put it bluntly, Mercedes had been caught napping in the winter break and their cars were not up to speed.
The second race in Oschersleben didn’t improve anyone’s mood in the Mercedes camp as BMW and Audi locked out the top 8 in qualifying with Werhlein putting in a great effort to qualify ninth. However, the rest of the Mercedes teams were once again resigned to the back of the grid. However, the race proved a completely different story. Rain hit hard from start to end, occasionally ceasing momentarily which caught many drivers out. Christian Vietoris decided to pit immediately after the formation lap for wet tyres along with several other Mercedes cars. Due to mistakes and crashes most of the BMW and Audi cars tumbled down the grid with incidents for Mercedes drivers Gary Paffett after leading the field and Robert Wickens ruling them out of the race half way through as well as Daniel Juncadella and Pascal Werhlein. Meanwhile, after a long safety car period, the Mercedes of Vietoris found himself leading the field in the closing stages, being chased by the two Audi’s of Mike Rockenfeller and Edoardo Mortara. To add even more shock and awe to the Mercedes pit wall, after being punted off into the gravel and falling down the field, a sterling effort from Scot Paul Di Resta saw him come home in fourth place. Paffett recovered to ninth. But, Mercedes admitted that only the rain made their win and point scoring possible, meaning they still had a long way to go.
Budapest saw a return to poor form as previous race winner Vietoris qualified 23rd and last of the runners with the BMW of Marco Wittmann once again putting it on pole. Although good starts from Wickens and Di Resta saw them up to fifth and seventh at one point during the race, while Di Resta suffered a steering failure, Wickens ultimately fell of the pace and all Mercedes drivers finished outside of the points with Paffett once again retiring due to damage in a collision.
The next round at the Norisring was looking as if it was to be more of the same for the German team, but no one could have predicted the outcome. Mercedes locked out the front row of the grid in qualifying with Robert Wickens and Paul Di Resta witth the remaining drivers all improving positions in regards to previous races. A safety car start saw not much action but once the safety car went in, Wickens pulled away with Di Resta in close pursuit. However, an idiotic move form BMW’s Jamie Green saw him collide into second place man Di Resta sending him to the back of the field where he never really recovered while Green received a five second stop-and-go penalty. Nevertheless, Wickens went on to win by some margin as Werhlein finished fifth with Paffett and Vietoris once again ruing their luck due to collisions and a botched pit stop.
As such, Mercedes go to Russia this weekend with high hopes. The last race didn’t appear to be a one off with BMW still receiving most points, but things are certainly on the up. However, the pressure is now on for team mates Dani Juncadella and Vitaly Petrov as both are yet to look even close to scoring points. One things for sure, the DTM drivers and manufacturers titles are still very much up for grabs as we reach the half way point this weekend at the Moscow Raceway.
You can catch the race on BT Sport in the UK or stream it live from the DTM website, http://www.dtm.com or from their YouTube channel in selected countries.
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