Hello fans, that was a turbulent weekend, right? Dijon celebrated a great DTM debut, with many spectators and for me with an incredible progression. Since I had never raced here before, the track in France was completely new to me and therefore a great challenge.

We knew that the track would be very fast, but we didn't know how quickly I could adapt to the new track. It was a great feeling, to realize that I was able to fight for the front positions. In dry conditions, and also in the wet during free practice my C- class ran very well. I also found my line very quickly on the track and could close the experience gap to the other DTM drivers quickly.

My car was again very well-prepared in qualifying, but that we were so quick surprised us all. In Q1 I set the fastest time. Also in Q2, I was again fastest, but this time my lap time was cancelled by the race control because at the exit of the final corner I went over the Astroturf a little too much. But my second flying lap easily qualified us for Q3. My car was just absolutely great in these dry conditions! Then light rain began and we immediately knew that it would be a little more difficult now. Unfortunately, in the last second, I missed the jump into Q4, and finished fifth. Honestly, if it had remained dry, we would have fought for pole position. Nevertheless, for the entire team the joy over our best DTM grid position outweighed.

Also on Sunday's warm-up I was extremely satisfied with the performance of my C-Class. Although there was a slight trend to oversteer, but that was no real problem. Very positive was the consistance, my last laps were almost as fast as my first.

So I went into the race with a very good feeling. When the light turned off, I had a great start. I passed Mattias Ekström quickly and went side by side with Tom Kristensen. Up to the first corner I was able to pass him almost on the outside, but then he pushed me off and damaged my suspension. Immediately the balance of my car was gone and my race was over. The C-Class was suddenly miles away from the previous performance and a little later the car began to slide, so I had to think very early about the tires. It was incredibly difficult to drive. Contrary to the opinion of the television commentators, I did not slow down to block Timo Scheider, I just couldn’t go any faster.

This is the reason that I went to my pit stops very early. We knew that this could be a risk to the end of the race, but we also hoped to increase the performance with new tires. Unfortunately, I continued to fall back until we got to the last laps of the race.

Especially the last two laps should not have happened like this. After the tyre failures from 3 Audis I understand that they were now cautious and slowed down significantly, I can also understand that nobody wants to lose their position easily, but some cars were weaving to prevent me from passing, and two cars blocked me on the straight so I couldn’t go anywhere. When I finally passed Alexandre Premat and I was fighting for the next position, Premat rammed me off the track. Apparently he wanted to use me as his brake. So I lost my 7th position and finished 12th.

One or two points after this race would have been really forgiving and due to the tire problems at Audi they were possible. In addition, the race result does not reflect the real balance of power over the rest of the weekend.

I am now preparing for the grand finale. Hockenheim is just great and I'm looking forward to the race. I am also curious to see how big the difference is between the new car compared to the start of the season at the same place. Surely they will be faster, but with a little luck and a good setup, I can again finish in the points at the season's final.

Keep racing,
Maro.