Jamie Green won race 1 at Hockenheim, starting his 2015 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters campaign off perfectly. Here are some quotes from the drivers and teams after the exciting start to the season.
“I was fast even last year but was simply unfortunate in the races,” Green said following his first victory for Audi. “Today, everything went perfectly. I’m driving in the same team, have the same engineer and feel comfortable in my Audi RS 5 DTM. All I can say is I’m happy.”
“I’m very happy about the successful season opener,” said Dieter Gass, Head of DTM at Audi Sport. “We delivered a very thrilling DTM race to the crowd which proves that the new race format is a step in the right direction. Obviously from Audi’s perspective it’s even more important that we’ve been able to make an initial assessment of where everyone stands and have seen that we did good work last winter. The Audi RS 5 DTM was the strongest car today and Jamie Green did the most impressive job of putting this on track. In the second half of the 2014 season he was already very fast. His first victory for Audi was practically in the air and simply overdue.”
“That was definitely a good start to the season,” said Pascal Wehrlein, 2nd place for Mercedes-AMG. “Second place in qualifying and another P2 in the first race. Things have gone well for me, so far. Of course, I would have preferred to win, but I lost position early in the race and then was third. I knew things would be tough at the start, because I was on used tyres. I was fast towards the end, though, so I took P2 back again”
“I got off to a great start,” commented Paul di Resta, who made it two Mercedes on the podium. “It was a bit tight on Turn 4, but after that, things went well. Pascal and I had good speed, and we were able to match the race leader for pace. Over the last few laps, I was having some problems with my brakes, but a podium is a good way to start the season. All the hard work of recent months has paid off, and it’s something we can build on. Many thanks to the team, who have worked so hard to achieve this success.”
“The race was very intense from the first corner to the last,” said Maxime Martin, the highest-placed BMW in P7. “The safety car phases made for a lot of action, and the fans will undoubtedly have enjoyed a great show. Seventh place is a good result for us, and earns us some valuable points. It is also a nice feeling to be the best-placed BMW driver. However, our opponents were better than us today. We have to acknowledge that. We will work hard to change that for the coming races.”
Race two will take place tomorrow afternoon, and BMW will look to gain some more points and stop Audi from taking the double.
