Edoardo Mortara was a very happy race winner at the Norisring, as the Italian was able to make good his intentions and take a well-controlled win on the streets of Nuremberg, on what was his 100th race start in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters.
Despite coming under initial attack from front-row starter Philipp Eng, along with team mate Gary Paffett in the latter stages, both the composed drive from Mortara and the strategy employed by Mercedes helped him take his second win of the year.
“That was a perfect day for me and for the team. My crew put in an incredibly strong performance today,” stated the 31-year-old, who has shown a great turnaround after a difficult first year last season with the Stuttgart brand.
Mortara’s win was his second with Mercedes, along with the brand taking it’s 19th win at Norisring after a two-year drought, which also pleased Ulrich Fritz, head of Mercedes’ DTM operations.
“We’ve seen a very strong team performance here today,” admitted Fritz, whose outfit continues to the lead the constructors’ standings on 365 points, leading BMW by 87 going into tomorrow.
“The drivers and the pit crew too did just great, performed well and did not put a foot wrong. Well done, Edo, for taking the win and congrats too to Gary for finishing runner-up.”
The Italian now moves up into fourth in the drivers’ standings, 22 points behind Mercedes team mate Gary Paffett, and is hopeful of a repeat performance that will help his title chances this season.
“I’ve already had one race win – that was at the Lausitzring – and in a couple of others, I was a bit unlucky, for example in the second race at Hockenheim and the other race at the Lausitzring.
“But things are going really well for me at the moment, and I’m obviously hoping for yet more wins to come. Hopefully, we can do an equally good job tomorrow.”