As to myself, beginning my second season in the DTM I know a lot more people in the paddock, so I feel it’s really a home-from-home. We worked hard over the winter months, and are lucky in that the older cars have a much better chance of scoring points this year. It’s just a completely different story in 2007. Last year I was always competing for the final five places on the grid whereas this year it is completely open, and if I have a good qualifying session I can get up into the top ten.
I had a strong start to the year in qualifying at Hockenheim, which was very encouraging. One of my biggest weaknesses last year was my qualifying performance, but I practiced very hard throughout winter testing on new tyre runs to try to improve that, and it appears to have worked. I think the fact the tyres are slightly different this year has also played in my favour.
We were not just quick in qualifying at Hockenheim though; we were quick in every session. From the minute we arrived there people started the rumours that I was running light in practice because they didn’t believe that was my true pace, but we managed to nail it in qualifying. It’s so very close in the DTM this year that you really have to have everything perfect if you want a chance of scoring points; everybody out there is pushing so hard and the teams are running at such a high level now that there’s absolutely no margin for error.
Unfortunately I then went out of the race through no fault of my own, but I said to Norbert Haug afterwards I would much rather be in 12th position, fighting for points in the midfield and end up in the crash barriers than down in 18th place, running at the back of the pack and just going round without actually battling with anybody. I did that last year and did what I had to do, but I’ve got the experience now. This year is all about fighting, and if that means I get caught up in more first lap shunts then so be it. It’s all about progressing up through the order.
