Torrid weekend for Paffett at the Red Bull Ring
Gary Paffett ended up in 17th place at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria.
Photo by: Eric Gilbert
In one of the most beautiful venues on the DTM calendar, Gary Paffett and his Mercedes team got prepared for the weekend race which marked the halfway point of the season.
Qualifying for the race took place on the Saturday evening, and things didn't go too well for Paffett, as he was pushed out of the runnings and didn't make it to the second qualifying session.
I really need to improve my qualifying performance in the next few races.
Gary Paffett
Afterwards, Paffett stated, ”It's difficult to say anything positive about this qualifying session. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a disappointment for me. I'm sure my car was good enough for the Top Five, but unfortunately I'm starting from 19th. That tells you all you need to know. I really need to improve my qualifying performance in the next few races."
The race saw Paffett climb from his starting position of 19th to take the chequered flag in 17th. During the race Paffett had a few battles with competitors and managed to climb to 14th place, but it was short lived.
On lap 28 Paffett had a slight tangle with Bruno Spengler, the BMW driver, who went on to finish in 10th. Paffett, who was fighting hard during the race, also had another on-track battle with Maxime Martin and on lap 43, Martin made his move and got ahead of Paffett.
Fellow Mercedes teammates Paul Dircets and Petrov came behind Paffett in 18th and 20th respectively.
Paffett said about his race, “Unfortunately, that was a pretty terrible race. We had the same speed as yesterday, so we simply weren’t fast enough. I was struggling with the balance of the car on both tyres. Also, on the first couple of laps, I had some tough battles and lost out. That was a bit of a disaster.”
Continuing the second half of the DTM season, Gary Paffett will next be at the Nurburgring from August 15th in Germany.
Gary Paffett
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.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