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After a remarkable season-opener at Hockenheim two weeks ago, Gary Paffett will be looking to build on his early-season success as he heads to the Lausitzring for the second round of the 2018 season.
The DTM season got underway a fortnight ago with the annual opening round at the Hockenheimring. The campaign got underway in dramatic fashion as Gary converted pole position into a race win on Saturday before being involved in a duel for the ages on Sunday - with Gary battling Timo Glock for the race victory in a tense wheel-to-wheel battle, with Gary eventually coming home in 3rd.
This weekend sees the DTM paddock move onto Lausitzring, a firm favourite in Gary’s calendar as the British driver is the joint-most successful driver on the German track; taking victories in 2005, 2009 and, most recently, in 2013. Gary has also stepped on the podium five times and taken pole position once in his 18 races at the circuit. 2018 will see a change to the layout of the Lausitzring with the circuit now measuring out at 4.534-kilometres.
Reaching the points in both of last year’s races, Gary will be hoping to continue his imperious form at the track this weekend and add to his tally of three race victories.
"After what was an excellent weekend at Hockenheim with two podiums and a win on Saturday, I'm obviously looking forward tremendously to the Lausitzring. I've won three times there in the past. This year's longer track layout will be a bit different, so it's going to be interesting to see how we get on. The car feels competitive, and hopefully, we can continue on form this weekend."
Ulrich Fritz, Head of Mercedes-AMG Motorsport DTM, is feeling confident but remains grounded knowing the team mustn't get ahead of themselves.
"We made a great start to the season but will now have to up our game at the Lausitzring, especially at a track that has been so well suited to us in general. Gary has already won three times there. Lucas too has been successful at the Lausitzring these last two years and Pascal and Paul have already won races at the circuit as well. Despite all these positive signs, we mustn't get ahead of ourselves and be over-optimistic. Firstly, we don't yet know what effect the changes made to the car will have out on track, and another thing is that the track we'll be racing on is going to be different to the one used in previous years."
The weekend starts on Friday with free practice at 16:00 (BST) with Saturday and Sunday’s races will both seeing lights out at 12:30!
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