Guernsey’s Andy Priaulx, a four-time World Touring Car series’ champion, scored the best result in his DTM career by finishing sixth in Hockenheim last Sunday. He scored a sixth-place finish last year, but not in the same circumstances.
Priaulx, who drives the Crowne Plaza-sponsored BMW M3 DTM set his best performance in qualifying with a third place before he clinched sixth in the race.
Auto123.com met with Priaulx last Sunday to discuss this sudden and quite unexpected gain in performance.
“Here (in Hockenheim) I decided to revert to my old driving technique of right foot braking,” said Priaulx.
“I’ve always done right foot braking until I joined the DTM where the engineers told me to get used to it because that was more efficient. I never got used to it. And here, I decided to switch back and I think it worked out well because I qualified third. I can brake with a lot more confidence and I have a much better feeling for the weight transfers under braking and turn-in. And that shows on the telemetry data,” the genial driver explained.
So, why didn’t he revert sooner during the season?
“You know,” he said, “I haven’t tested the car since the pre-season test in Barcelona. I’m only driving the car on race weekends. We have a lot of work to do during the sole, 90-minute free practice session. It’s not the time to try different driving techniques. But here, I said to myself ‘it’s the last race of the season, let’s try it’.
Priaulx, who drives the Crowne Plaza-sponsored BMW M3 DTM set his best performance in qualifying with a third place before he clinched sixth in the race.
Auto123.com met with Priaulx last Sunday to discuss this sudden and quite unexpected gain in performance.
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| Andy Priaulx. (Photo: René Fagnan) |
“Here (in Hockenheim) I decided to revert to my old driving technique of right foot braking,” said Priaulx.
“I’ve always done right foot braking until I joined the DTM where the engineers told me to get used to it because that was more efficient. I never got used to it. And here, I decided to switch back and I think it worked out well because I qualified third. I can brake with a lot more confidence and I have a much better feeling for the weight transfers under braking and turn-in. And that shows on the telemetry data,” the genial driver explained.
So, why didn’t he revert sooner during the season?
“You know,” he said, “I haven’t tested the car since the pre-season test in Barcelona. I’m only driving the car on race weekends. We have a lot of work to do during the sole, 90-minute free practice session. It’s not the time to try different driving techniques. But here, I said to myself ‘it’s the last race of the season, let’s try it’.