Mercedes-Benz had one sole participant in yesterday’s last part of qualifying at Hockenheim, as Lausitzring winner Pascal Wehrlein (HWA) was able to use the new C-Coupé to get the best result he could. The F3 graduate ended up sixth as the highest placed Stuttgart driver overall, as Audi dominated with six of their cars in the top 8.
This was despite the fact that the 20-year-old admitted that there is still a lot to learn, on a car that Christian Vietoris has been clocking up the most mileage on since its debut at Zandvoort.
“My free practice was really bad, ending up in P19, as we were struggling with the new car,” admitted the Mercedes AMG Petronas reserve driver in the international press conference yesterday afternoon. “You need to find the best set-up and learn a lot. There is still more to do, but we improved a lot since the morning.”
Having retired at both Oschersleben and Spielberg this year, he is still in with a chance of possibly securing fifth overall in the championship, if he does the following this afternoon:
- Scores 2 points more than BMW Motorsport’s Maxime Martin
- Scores 9 points more that Audi Sport’s Mike Rockefeller.
He has shown that he could be a factor in next year’s championship, so a good result from the Sigmaringen-based driver on home turf will be a help in building the motivation toward his next campaign.
He’s looking forward to the challenge ahead this afternoon, even though he realizes the task ahead: “The Audi guys are very quick at the moment, so it will not be easy to catch them in the race, but I will do my best and try to attack.”