More than 35 000 fans gathered in the Mercedes-Benz Arena Stuttgart on Saturday to see which Mercedes-Benz motorsport champion would earn the victory in the Stars & Cars event. The annual event is organized by Mercedes-Benz and follows a format similar to that of the Race of Champions.
The Mercedes-Benz F1 Hybrid W06, the Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM, the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 and a Dallara-Mercedes Formula 3 racing car were the first to hit the track, with some demo laps by their respective Mercedes-Benz champion drivers. The event included drivers from a variety of different disciplines, but many of the names have been in Formula One.
The driver list included Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg from Formula One, along with Pascal Wehrlein, Paul Di Resta, Gary Paffett, Robert Wickens, Christian Vietoris, Daniel Juncadella, Maximilian Götz and Lucas Auer from DTM. The other six drivers were decided by a fan vote, which determined that Mick Schumacher, David Coulthard, Mika Häkkinen, Jean Alesi, Bernd Schneider and Bernd Mayländer would be the lucky six drivers that would be invited to the event. Sir Stirling Moss, Hans Herrmann and Susie Wolff were also in attendance, but did not take part in the grid.
Hamilton faced off against Häkkinen in the first round of the grid, in the Mercedes-AMG A45 4MATIC. Hamilton advanced to round two. Götz beat Vietoris, after Vietoris was excluded from the results. Di Resta went head-to-head with Coulthard, but wasn’t able to advance past round one. Wehrlein got the better of Alesi, while Juncadella advanced past Auer. Paffett was beaten by Schneider and Wickens by Mayländer. Schumacher’s chance to advance to the next rounds was taken away by Rosberg.
The Mercedes-AMG C 63 S was used in the quarter-finals. Hamilton out-raced Götz and Wehrlein was able to beat Coulthard. Juncadella had the largest lead in the entire event, beating Schneider by a little less than six seconds. Rosberg narrowly grabbed a spot in the semi-finals when he faced off against Mayländer.
Both Formula One drivers managed to make it to the semi-finals, but neither was able to advance to the finals. Hamilton was beaten by Wehrlein in the Mercedes-AMG GT S, with the closest finish of the event. Only 0.1 seconds separated the drivers. Rosberg gave it his all, but wasn’t able to out-perform Juncadella.
Despite not making it to the final round of the event, both Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton had some fun at the event. “Wow, that was a super experience driving in the Mercedes-Benz Arena in front of so many fans,” Rosberg told the press. “Obviously, I would have liked to make it through to the final, but ultimately, it wasn’t quite enough. The DTM guys were really fast and they beat Lewis and me. Respect to them for that!”
Hamilton was impressed with the performance of Wehrlein. “That was a lot of fun. The donuts and the drifts were great,” Hamilton explained. “I lost the semi-final against Pascal on the start. Unfortunately, I got off to a poor start, but Pascal drove really well. It was incredibly close – there was less than a tenth in it.”
The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 was the car used in the final round of the competition, under the floodlights of the arena. Wehrlein and Juncadella battled it out on the track. Juncadella won two of the final races, with Wehrlein not winning any. This made Daniel Juncadella the 2015 Mercedes-Benz Stars & Cars champion, on his debut at the event.
“I’m absolutely delighted. I felt really comfortable in the SLS AMG GT3 and found a good rhythm,” Daniel Juncadella said after the races. “Stars & Cars was a super event – there were so many fans here tonight. Simply incredible. I was nervous going into each of the races. It’s been a very special occasion.”
There were no hard feelings from Wehrlein, as he still found the event quite enjoyable. “That was simply fantastic. It was a real DTM final, with me up against Daniel,” he said. “I gave it everything I’d got, but ultimately it wasn’t to be. All the same, it’s been an incredible evening. I’m looking forward to doing it all over again next year.”
