Well, dear fans, with the race in Barcelona, Spain, the DTM now comes to the last races of the season. For me the weekend in Spain was a slight up and down again, but in the end we went home with a strong solid result. I was again the fastest driver in a 2008 Mercedes and my team has again delivered a great performance. Even if my mechanics would surely have expected a quicker second pit stop. But we will start at the beginning:

In free practice we worked and changed a lot on the car. The problem was that we managed to find a good balance but as soon as we changed the tyres for another set, the handling was completely different. We use the same spec tires, so it was quite a mystery to us. There was not much time for a setup change till the qualifying and thus there was some uncertainty over our Qualifying performance.

But my crew again did a great job and improved my Mercedes C-Class a lot for qualifying. Even in Q1, I noticed the significant improvement that was reflected in a quick lap time. Again at the beginning of Q2 I managed to drive a very good lap. However, with the time the balance problems returned back. The track conditions changed during qualifying so that the car was no longer as easy to drive and I missed the jump in Q3 by less than a tenths of a second. Nevertheless, there was a great satisfaction in the team. I started from 10th position as the best 2008 Mercedes.

When the starting lights went off, I had a really good start and improved myself to the 9th position immediately. With the Audi's surrounding me, I managed to go their pace and defend my position. I even could put pressure on Alexandre Premat in front of me in 8th position.

Because of a crash, we had expected the safety car would come out. Therefore, we decided to anticipate the second pit stop. Unfortunately, at this time I was already towards the end of the lap and turned immediately into the pit lane. The mechanics were not quite ready, but they have did a phenomenal job. I was cleared as quickly as possible and only lost 1s to a normal pitsop. But the safety car was not deployed, and as we were very close together on the track, I lost my 9th position at this pit stop to Oliver Jarvis. I then tried to overtake him again, but he didn’t make a mistake. So I finished the race in 10th position.

Overall, it was still a good weekend. For the 2008 cars it is currently more difficult to finish in the points, but I'm confident to score in the last two races again. With excitement all drivers now expect the DTM premiere at Dijon. Unlike my colleagues, they had a test day in France before the season started, for me it will be the first time I drive in Dijon. But after a few laps I should be up to the pace. The weight of my Mercedes C-Class will be as low as possible in France, which will certainly help us.

Keep racing
Maro