After showing a strong performance in practice and qualifying, Mattias Ekström’s Norisring round of the DTM championship went bad as the weather worsened, with the Swede eventually finishing seventh after battling for second in the early exchanges...
When I went to the Norisring last week I was only going there for one thing. I’ve been racing there since 2001 and I’ve set the fastest lap, had pole position and finished third, second and a couple of times come within a tiny margin of winning. This year I was only interested in the victory.
Initially things were going pretty well. We were very fast during Friday practice and Saturday morning, but during qualifying I made a mistake. We looked good in the initial stages – I’d set the fastest lap of the weekend – but in Q4 I struggled with cold brakes and cold tyres and locked up at the start of my run. I ended up qualifying fourth, which isn’t fantastic if you want to win the race, but you’re still close enough to be in contention.
'Maybe it looked like the car didn't perform well in the wet, but it wasn't like that'
Gary Paffett had a steering problem at the start, so I was up to third and having a great battle with Jamie Green until the pitstop window opened. We all started pitting, the rain picked up and suddenly it was all about tyre choices and strategy. I lost a lot of ground, then the safety car came out – because it was too wet – and that cost me a couple more places. In the end we had really good pace and no result – that makes it a disappointing weekend because we didn’t get what I felt we deserved.
Maybe it looked like the car didn’t perform well in the wet, but it wasn’t like that. Actually at the beginning of the race when it was wet, we were really good – but there’s a difference between wet and really wet – and when the rain started falling heavier, we were definitely not as competitive. Going into the race we expected the track to get drier as the race went on and we were set up for that. It’s difficult to predict what’s really going to happen, of course, and this week we didn’t get it spot-on, but that’s life. We can’t change it, we have to just accept it and move on to the next one. We were competitive at the Norisring and so long as we can stay competitive, eventually the results will come.
After Norisring I’m faced with ten days out of the car. That hasn’t been the case for quite a long time with the racing that we’ve been doing, driving the R8 LMS in the VLN series. The plan is that I’m going to stay at home; wash my cars, do the laundry, clean out the office, play some sports and enjoy seeing my son every day: basically mooching around at home with no plans to do anything fancy – or rather the fancy thing to do is not doing anything fancy, if you know what I mean.
Right now I’m packing up the Q7, and we’re going to the beach for a swim and a game of tennis. One of the nice things about living in Switzerland is that the summers tend to be a bit warmer than they are in Sweden, which means the water is a bit warmer too. Very good for swimming…
Mentally I’m not completely switched off from racing, because you never are. The team is preparing the car for the next few races and obviously we stay in touch. Before we race at the Nürburgring though, we have a special event in Munich’s Olympic Stadium, racing head-to-head on a special track. There aren’t any points at stake but it’s still going to be a highlight of the year because it’s something new and I want to be successful. So, we’re preparing ourselves for that, but also for the Nürburgring. If we can get all the little details right, we’ll be challenging for a win when we go there.
Cheerio
Mattias
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