Starting from 15th position always means hard work. During the qualifying I experienced that thousandths decide about your position. All drivers are at close quarters.

Having a moderate start showed me that I still have a need of improvments. Particularly starting manually was new to me. I had just a few test-starts, so my reaction was not that good.

Evrything is different than in a Formular 1 bolide: steering, changing gears and coupling. The seating position differs from the one you have in a Formular 1 car. Not sitting central in  DTM racing cars gives you an absolutely different field of view; one can see less of the track and other drivers. One can see worth!



After completing a few laps I got more and more familiar with my Mercedes. Everything ran as expected; I also got ahead of my Mücke-teammate Maro Engel. As my team worked absolutely professional our pitstops went on perfectly and so I was even able to get ahead of Matthias Lauda. During the race I could keep up with the other driver’s speed better and better.

Next to constant lap times I took the third best time in the third section. Composing my fastest section times to a complete lap time I ran 1:34,542 minutes.

I feel lucky about the short pause between the first and the second race. I’ll try to classify better in Ochersleben than I did in the first race. I need to work hard till Ochersleben, in order to become more familiar with my Mercedes. I just need to settle in a lot more to be able achieve more. I feel confident to make all this together with my team and so we’ll be able to move up to the DTM specialists.

Through my tests in Ochersleben I got to know the racetrack, which will help me a lot. Otherwise Ochersleben is a very special track, tight and curvaceous. My next challange.

Yours

Ralf