After a much more positive weekend at Brands Hatch I was heading to Oschersleben in a very positive mood. We hadn’t got the car setup right for the wet conditions at Brands, but I still managed to finish P4 overall and the best Mercedes. A good result in difficult conditions.

So after a very early start on Thursday to catch a 6:45am flight to Berlin (it seemed a better idea when I booked it than it did while getting woken up by my alarm at 3:45am!) I arrived at a sunny but windy Oschersleben about 1:30 drive from Berlin. This circuit has its good points and bad points but overall I like it. The hotel we stay at is on the outside of turn two and you can see most of the kart circuit-like track from my hotel room window. This would be a great place to watch had I not been driving. I really does feel like a kart circuit with very short straights and a lot of long 2^nd-3^rd gear corners and is a real challenge for the drivers. The other big thing here is the punishment the cars take – to get the best laptime you really have to attack a lot of big kerbs and at times it feels really hard on the floor and suspension and can do some serious damage to the front splitter specifically;  affecting the front aerodynamic performance of the car.

After the usual catch up with the engineers and other team members and a tour of the circuit on the scooter in sunny but chilly conditions it was back to the hotel for an early night; still suffering from that early wake up call.

On Friday we conducted our usual race setup work and the car felt pretty good. We did a lot of running on older tyres and by the end of the 90 min session I finished up 14^th; a few tenths behind Spengler in 10^th. With Audi dominating the session headed by Albuquerque and Audi having seven out of the top ten it seemed that they had a different plan than Mercedes.

On Friday night we had our usual team dinner where I was the star attraction! Just four days previous I had given the new 2012 Mercedes C-Coupe DTM car its first run at the Lausitzring in a test together with Audi and DTM newcomers BMW. Everyone from my fellow drivers to the mechanics and PR guys wanted to know what it was like. It was a great feeling being given the chance to drive the car for the first time.  The car was actually really nice to drive and I am really looking forward to what should be a great new DTM in 2012.

So back to 2011 and on with the weekend. We started Saturday with a bit more race setup then ended the session with two runs on new tyres in preparation for Qualifying, we also completed a single lap on the used quali tyres for a Q4 simulation as we always do.

I made a couple of small mistakes on my new tyre runs so didn’t get the best laptime possible but I was very happy with the car balance and finished the session in 9^th position.

Conditions were good for qualifying and I was feeling pretty confident after a good test session.  We waiting for five mins before going out in Q1 but when we started the car something wasn’t right. The engine sounded a little rough and as I left the pits it got worse. I completed the out lap and it hadn’t cleared; there was a misfire and I came straight back to the pits and the mechanics set about fixing the problem. They changed everything they could in the time but as I set off once more it was the same problem. I came straight in again and ended qualifying without setting a single flying lap. P18 on such a tight circuit, what a disaster. After later inspection we found out it was an electrical connection problem that caused the misfire and the same problem had actually happened to Spengler’s car but his managed to clear just in time for him to get in a good lap and he went on to finish 2^nd just 0.001 behind Molina who qualified his 2008 Audi on pole for the first time.

So today couldn’t get any worse, or could it? Actually it could. I was later disqualified from qualifying for a parc ferme infringement after one of the team checked the tyre pressures while the car was in parc ferme time which is against the rules. Another disappointment to end the day was seeing Arsenal, a team I passionately support, continue their bad start to the season and get beaten 4-3 by Blackburn!! A day definitely to forget.

On Saturday evening it was Maro Engel’s turn to play host for the evening and he did a great job, even with all the banter from his fellow Mercedes DTM drivers! There was once again much talk about the new 2012 DTM car and a couple of short videos on the car and testing for the Press and Sponsors to see.

Sunday morning arrived and I was in a more positive mood than I had been the night before. It was race day my favourite day of the weekend and guess what, rain was forecast. This is exactly what I wanted. Finding my way from 18^th to a good finishing position was going to be nearly impossible in the dry but with a bit of rain anything could be possible.

We spent the morning preparing some wet setups and even though the warm up was dry, rain was forecast for the race and so running a compromised setup in the warm up we finished up just 15^th.

As we got closer to the race the rain finally came and by looking at the sky you could tell it was here for the long run. It wasn’t raining too hard but enough to make the tyre and setup decision a no brainer: WET.

As at Brands the two laps to the grid would be the first we had driven in the wet here and so were very important to feel the grip level on the track and try to judge the car balance. It felt good and I lined my car up on the final grid position, it was a long way from here to the front!

After a trip back to the garage for a comfort break (that’s what they call it in tennis isn’t it?!) we went back to the grid and at 13:40 all the drivers lined up on the start line for a one minute of silence to mourn the loss of Christian Bakkerud, a young DTM driver that lost his life in a road car accident just a week ago. I was a good friend of Christian’s in our karting days and he will be sorely missed, R.I.P.

Back to the race and the rain continued to fall, I got in and we set off on the first of two formation laps. After the problem with the wiper at Brands the team had made some changes and from the amount of spray I had in front of me I was very pleased the wipers were working as the visibility was very poor.

We lined up and I got an ok start but held back into turn one to be on the safe side; after all I couldn’t lose any places. In front of me drivers challenged for position and I came round turn two and was faced with Coulthard and then Scheider heading in my direction. Both had been pushed into a spin and I had to take to the grass to avoid Scheider. I got past Frey and Stoddart but in the second to last corner of lap one was hit by a red misted Scheider and was spun out coming to a rest on the inside of the track before the last corner. I had to restart the engine and spun the car round and set off once again.

I finished the first lap in 17^th position; 22 seconds behind race leader Spengler. I was making steady progress and by lap 18 I was up to 13^th just behind a trio of cars; Green, Jarvis and Rockenfeller. Rocky pitted on lap 19 and by lap 23 I had got past both Jarvis and Green.  Jamie pitted on lap 23 and came out just behind Rocky. I stayed out posting a lot of fast lap times and caught the back of a charging Chritian Vietoris who had started alongside me at the back of the grid. He pitted on lap 32 but I stayed out and was running in 2^nd for a while before I pitted for my second mandatory stop on lap 36. I emerged in 4^th position ahead of both Vietoris and Rocky and just 10 seconds behind 2^nd place Tomczyk who was my next target.

I struggled more on the last set of wet tyres and couldn’t get closer to the two cars in front. I was lapping about 1.5 seconds slower than on the last set and was actually being caught by Vietoris in 5^th.

I managed to hold enough of a gap and came home in 4^th place while Ekstrom impressively won the race by 42 seconds – a new DTM record winning margin. Bruno Spengler, starting from P2, was hoping for a strong points score but he had a front suspension problem midway through the race when lying second and had to retire, while his championship rival Martin Tomczyk started a lowly 15^th managed to finish in 2^nd mainly down to an incredible 1^st lap charge from 15^th to 6^th position.

The same four drivers would make the press conference as at Brands with me being the best placed Mercedes once again in 4^th position. Another strong showing especially considering the problems in qualifying but the mood inside the Mercedes camp was a bit down. Bruno was hoping to retake the championship lead starting 13 places ahead of Tomczyk but he leaves Oscherslebena further eight points behind; nine back with just two races to go. He will certainly be hoping his luck returns for Valencia, and so will I. After two races of very good speed and just missing the podium by one place in each I really hope I can get my first win or even podium in two weeks at Valencia.

With more testing in the 2012 DTM cars at the Hungaroring planned for this week, 2012 is getting much closer but this season is not over and there is still a lot to play for. I am still 9^th in the standing but just nine points behind 4^th place Scheider now so bring on Valencia.

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