Katherine Legge's DTM education continued at potentially the toughest track on the calendar at the weekend, as the series moved on to its blue riband event around the fading Steintribune in Nuremberg.
The Norisring is frequently referred to as the DTM's Monaco and, while the backdrop may not be quite as appealing as the Mediterranean, poses just a similar examination of talent and bravery - especially for first-timers.
Despite her inexperience, however, Legge was happy to be comparatively on the pace during Friday's test session, as the entire 19-car field was covered by just 0.801secs, even if she still saw her qualifying effort end - along with those of Mike Rockenfeller, Futurecom-TME team-mate Christijan Albers and Markus Winkelhock - in the opening phase of the F1-style session on Saturday.
"The qualifying was disappointing after we'd been keeping up with the field pretty well on Friday," Legge sighed, "Actually, we had all been looking forward to qualifying. However, neither of the team's cars were running perfectly, so we've still got some work to do."
Avoiding the sort of incident that frequently catches the unwary on raceday at the Norisring, Legge kept out of trouble to bring the Hofmuhl-sponsored 2006-spec Audi A4 DTM home in 15th place, ahead of
F1 veteran
Ralf Schumacher, while team-mate Albers, after a strong start, had to retire with steering problems. However, her race was not entirely problem-free as the tough street circuit took its usual toll on the car's internals.
"The race didn't go the way we'd been hoping it would, but at least we finished and gained valuable experiences," she noted, "The circuit is very difficult, and I started having problems with the gearbox and brakes. I was no longer able to shift from first into second and therefore had to use second. I made room for others too, and that caused me to lose a lot of time. But I learned a lot this weekend and have a positive feeling about Zandvoort."
![Katherine Legge - Futurecom TME Audi A4 [pic credit: DTM Media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/463000.jpg)
