My first DTM season is over. My debut year ended with a fantastic team performance in Hockenheim. Straight from the first practice I felt comfortable in the car.

My 7th place showed clearly that we found the pace very early, even though in the second practice I fell behind a little. We had problems with the front splitter, which is extremely delicate, and goes through heavy shocks in Hockenheim. This showed clearly how important this part is for the balance of my car. My 9th place in the third practice session showed we were clearly on a good way this weekend. Once again I could count on my team for a great job in preparing the car. Therefore I have to say a big “Thank you so much for the great season” to everyone at the team.

For Qualifying my car was well balanced. Right until one minute to the end I was 11th. Unfortunately I got overtaken by 3 cars in the dying seconds of Qualifying. So I was 14th on the grid but very confident for the race. It was also positive to beat my team mate Ralf Schumacher for the fourth time in a row now.

The start to the last race of the Season was not as good as expected. As I let the clutch come, the revs went too low and I got overtaken by some cars.  But in the second lap I managed to regain these places again. Then I had a really good three-way fight with Gary Paffet and Alexandre Premat. All three of us were close and sometimes we were very much on the verge of crashing. But until the end it was a good fight.

Through a clever strategy of my team I managed to pass Gary Paffet at the first pit stop. The team once again did a great job. The second pit stop was very good too, but this time Gary managed to overtake me as he stopped one lap before me. It was a good fight till the end between the champion from 2005 and myself. I think I really managed to put pressure on him. Unfortunately it was not possible to overtake him on the track. Classic slipstream duels are very difficult because of the aerodynamics. Once I was close enough, I lacked the down force in the fast corners. At the end I finished in 12thposition and I must say I very much enjoyed this race.

I am quite satisfied with my first DTM season. We have continuously improved. From race to race, we got faster, so it was nice to see the progress from race 1 at Hockenheim to race 11 at Hockenheim and I can really say that I was on one level with Gary Paffet this weekend. Unfortunately we were not always very lucky in races where a point scoring result was on the cards.

A Big thanks to the whole team again who have done a tremendous job this year, and also all my fans for supporting me so strongly. See you in 2009!