Mattias Ekström's stellar form continued with his second victory in three races, powering the Red Bull Audi A4 DTM to the chequered flag at Oschersleben with over 40 seconds between him and the best of the rest...
Yeah, that was a good weekend! On Saturday at Oschersleben, things were looking good. Qualifying might have been a little better, but fourth was OK and the car felt right. On Sunday morning, it was dry and we did a long warm-up run but when it looked like it was going to rain for the race we used our experience from the recent race at Brands Hatch to make some changes to the set-up and that, I think, made us very, very competitive in the wet.
We had a slice of luck in the first two or three corners, escaping all of the crash-boom-banging that was going on around the car. I came through that with a clear track in front of me and just [Bruno] Spengler ahead. After a few laps I realised he was not so quick in the conditions and that I could pass him. That, basically, was it.
Obviously the last couple of races have been affected by rain and we’ve done pretty well but I don’t think the car is exclusively good in the wet, I think we would have done well if it were dry also - but we have had good experiences when rain falls and that makes us confident for getting our set-up right in those conditions - and as I’ve said before, confidence makes the weekend a whole lot easier. In general though, our race pace is very good regardless of the weather. We still need to make improvements for qualifying, but overall the team and the car are working well.
'With some tiny tweaks we’re suddenly right at the front and competing hard.'
It’s been quite a run over the last few races with two wins and a second place. Given that the start of the season was something of a disaster everybody is asking me what has changed recently? It might not be a very satisfying answer, but I don’t think anything has changed! Our rhythm maybe has improved a little bit and also the communication between the different Abt Team garages is better now but beyond this nothing much is different. I think it demonstrates how tight DTM is, because with some tiny tweaks we’re suddenly right at the front and competing hard.
There are two more races to run this year and I’m sticking with my current philosophy of being satisfied wherever we finish, so long as I’ve taken everything out of the car that it has to give. If that means victory or a podium finish, then fantastic – but if it’s only good enough for fifth place, then so be it. That said, I don’t see any reason why our current form cannot continue. Next up in Valencia, which is definitely one of the circuits I like the most, and last time we were there I came away with a victory.
I think it’s a little bit late in the year to have an impact on the Championship but at the very least we can gather some good momentum which will set us up nicely going into the winter and the start of next season.
Yorick Carroux/Red Bull photofiles
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