The free practice went well. I was the fastest Mercedes-year old car, five tenths of a second in front of my team-mate Ralf Schumacher. I had set myself the goal to make it into the second qualifying segment. But on my fastest lap I made a mistake at the very first corner, Unfortunately I missed the cut by less than a tenth of a second. I was quite annoyed for a moment because had it not been for the mistake I would have made it into Q2 quite comfortably. However I then fully focused on the upcoming race.

At the Eurospeedway the start is very important as it is very hard to overtake. I had a good start and first lap to gain 4 places. In turn 3 I had a good fight with my team-mate and managed to pass him. It was close, but fair.

Until the first pit stop I held my position as the top year-old Mercedes car. At the first pit stop one of the wheels was slightly jammed and we lost a place to Gary Paffett. The running order remained the same for the rest of the race. I wasn't quite able to go the same pace as Gary, as I was fighting some oversteer. I finished the race in 12^th position behind Gary Paffett and two places ahead of my team-mate Ralf Schumacher. As Alexandre Prémat was later disqualified, I moved up to Eleventh, which equals my best DTM result so far. With a better qualifying maybe next time we can better that again.

Now I have a racing break of six weeks. At the end of June we will go to the season highlight at the Norisring. I can't wait, as this will be my home race too, and the atmosphere in the city should have something from Monaco. I hope many of my fans will come and support me at what should be a fantastic weekend!

Keep Racing!
Maro