Aug
23
Gary Paffett’s DTM Blog: Round 6, Nürburgring
DTM Round 6: Nürburgring
It had been five weeks since the last championship race at the Norisring but the memories of this race were still very vivid. After having a great weekend I was laying in second place and on course for a podium at least and maybe even my first race win of the season when a mechanical failure on the car sent me crashing into the concrete wall on the exit of turn three and out of the race.
So next up was round six of the championship at the Nürburgring, where I went still looking for my first podium finish of the 2011 season – and what a place to try and get it. I have been on pole here twice and won once (it should have been twice but for a drive through penalty for crossing the white line on the pit exit in 2005, while leading the race). Also the mixed weather and conditions that the Eifel mountains deliver always makes it an interesting challenge. As we saw at the Formula 1 race here two weeks earlier, summer means nothing to this part of Germany and we were to get similar conditions; walking round the paddock in jumpers and jackets at the start of August does not feel right!
So on Thursday morning, I set off early. Leaving the house in my Mercedes-Benz C-Class at 6am, heading down to Folkestone to board the Eurotunnel across to France. As this is one of the closest races to the UK it’s nice for once not to have to get on an aeroplane and it also gave me the chance to pick up my new company car. A brand new Mercedes-Benz C Coupe and what a car it is! Really good looking and the technology inside is really impressive. We arrived early afternoon and I went straight to the track for team and data meetings with the engineers. We went through any relevant information from the last race as well as covering what to expect this weekend. When someone asked the question, “What about the weather” the reply was, “Well, it’s the Nürburgring!!!” That was about right. None of the weather forecasts actually worked out to be correct; it rained when it shouldn’t have done and was bright and sunny when it should have been raining; what a place this is!
After the mandatory trip to the great Italian restaurant round the corner on Thursday night (anyone that has been to the Nürburgring probably knows where I mean!), it was an early start on Friday morning; on track at 9am for the 30 min roll-out session. This went as planned and the testing for real started at 1pm. We did a lot of running on the dry track not knowing what the rest of the weekend might be like and worked hard to get the car setup right for the race. We got some good results and even though I ended the 90min session in 13th position, the car didn’t feel too bad. And as it has been all year long it was again extremely close; I was just 0.7s off the fastest car of Mike Rockenfeller and just one second covered 17 of the 18 cars in the field.
At the end of the session, we got a chance to do a practice start on the grid which gave me my first surprise of the weekend; they have moved the start line! I had been informed about it but just didn’t expect it to be so different; finding where to line up was interesting as I was the first car to do so and it was some 238 metres further down the track than in the past. This had an impact on the racing as it was now a much shorter run down to turn one giving you less time to get up to speed. The change actually did a good job of reducing the incidents into the first corner of many of the races that weekend.
Friday night is our team dinner and a chance for the drivers, engineers and mechanics to sit down together and chew the fat as it were. We usually get some light entertainment in the shape of a few good videos and this week it was DC (David Coulthard) doing a poor job of trying not to look scared while being driver round the Nordschleife by Nico Rosberg in a Mercedes-Bens SLS. DC as always was entertaining and it was good to catch up with my fellow drivers after such a long time since the last race.
On Saturday morning, we woke up to a cold and damp Nürburgring. It wasn’t raining but it had done and the whole day would prove to be difficult to judge the weather. At 9:25 we started our second and final test session before qualifying and after finishing the session in 7th place, just 0.2 off the leader of the pack Mattias Ekstrom, I was confident ahead of the qualifying session.
This qualifying session was interesting. Just before Q1 it rained just enough to dampen the circuit but is wasn’t for long and the track dried very quickly before the start. My team decided to hold me in the garage a few minutes to let the others test out the circuit but after just two minutes into the session it rained heavily. I was sat in the garage looking out of the garage at the rain falling from the sky and it didn’t seem to be letting up.
After eight mins of the 15 minute session, the rain eased up and we had to chance it. Going out on a damp circuit, on slicks, with just six minutes of the session left (approximately 3-4 laps) to set a lap time to make it through to Q2 is one of the toughest things you can be asked to do. I pushed hard to try and get the tyres up to temperature but it was still too damp and as I crossed the line just 0.3s before the chequered flag I was still in P15 and if it stayed like that I would take no further part in the session. So this was it, one chance to push it to the limit. I had now got the tyres up to temperature and the track was becoming increasingly dry. I stayed of the damp patches and pushed as hard as I could. I crossed the line setting a lap time nearly two seconds faster than I had on the lap before moving me up to 4th position. I could nearly hear the massive sigh of relief coming from the garage!
So we were through to Q2 and the track was pretty much fully dry now. We did a sighting run on used tyres to check out the conditions, then fitted a new set of tyres right at the end of the session. With just this run on new tyres it was going to be hard to judge how hard to push and I underestimated the grip level. I finished the session in a disappointing 13th position, very frustrated as I knew we had a good speed in the car today. My team mates Green and Spengler would go on to qualify 2nd and 4th while Schumacher was caught out like me in Q1 and would start only 17th.
By Sunday morning I had got over the frustration from Qualifying and was focused on the task in hand; getting points from 13th on the grid. It was even colder than it had been on Saturday morning and the track grip in the warmup session was very low. We had made some setup changes over night and the car’s balance was good and very consistent over a long run.
The weather improved and no rain was forecast for the race, which was actually a big disappointment for me as mixed conditions could possibly make it a lot easier to make up a lot of positions. With the lap times being so close down the grid I had to take a few risks at the start and, after a good get away from the grid and a bit of fighting through the pack, I came across the line at the end of lap one in 9th position, a good improvement from 13th so early in the race.
I set about catching the Audi of Molina and very soon he started to struggle with his car on worn tyres. He made a mistake into the last chicane on lap eight and slowed a lot in the middle of the corner. I tried to pass him out of the chicane but he covered the inside line, then out of the last corner I tried again but he pulled across over the front of my car and I lost a lot of speed. This allowed Albuquerque and Van Der Zande to get past me. Two laps later Albuquerque had got past Molina and I was past Van Der Zande. Time for another go at Molina. On lap 12 I got a good run on Molina out of turn two and fired my car down the inside into turn three. We touched slightly but I got through into clean air. I pitted at the end of that lap for my first stop and was followed by Molina and Van Der Zande. Unfortunately one of my wheels was slow going on and we lost two seconds in the stop and the place I had just taken from Molina. On lap 14, Albuquerque pitted and came out just beside Molina, they battled it out for the remaining lap but on his fresher tyres Abluquerque got in front and started to pull a gap. By lap 20 Molina’s tyres were starting to wear again and it was time to have another go at passing him. I looked down the inside of turn three for the second time and he left me a gap. I got past and quickly pulled a good lead, focused on catching Albuquerque for 8th position.
At the end of lap 28 we made an early stop to try and get an advantage on the new tyres. It worked, and on my first lap out of the pits I set the second fastest lap of the race. Albuquerque pitted on lap 31, just three laps later, and filtered out safely behind me; the strategy had worked. So with 18 laps left my next target was Mortara but he was some distance up the road. He in turn was catching Green who was also catching 5th place Tomczyk.
I was lapping consistently between 2-4 tenths of a second quicker than the cars in front but I just ran out of laps. I finished the race in 8th position, crossing the finish line just 0.7 behind Mortara and less than four seconds behind 5th place Tomczyk.
Mattias Ekstrom won the race easily after finishing all but one of the sessions in 1st position. Spengler was second and extended his lead over Tomczyk in the Championship to seen points. After a run of tricky races, I am in joint 8th position in the championship with just 10 points but I am doing my bit to help the team lead the team’s championship classification.
Next we travel the shortest distance of the year for me to my home race at Brands Hatch. I like this circuit which is considered by the drivers to be one of the most difficult races of the year. Its short lap and lack of any sort of straight make the 98 laps a real challenge for the drivers and cars. I hope I can give the British crowd something to cheer about!
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