Auto123.com is proud to bring you, exclusive to our site, the column of Canadian driver Bruno Spengler, official DTM driver for the Mercedes-Benz team. Here’s what Bruno had to say about his adventures on the Nürburgring track in Germany.
“Hi everyone,
I’m writing to you after a somewhat disappointing weekend at Nürburgring that had started out with some great qualifying results.
For me, the event began as early as Thursday with a golf tournament near Nürburg organized by Klaus Ludwig, former DTM star. As is often the case in this region, the rain insisted on ruining our game, but we had fun anyways – I even managed to place second in the tournament!
Friday started out with a short jog to limber up. I then headed out to the track where this first day, as usual, was reserved for tech meetings and various marketing endeavours. After the previous day’s rain we were treated to a beautiful, sunny day. They were calling for nice summer weather all weekend long.
Personally, I had trouble believing it. Three nice days in a row at Nürburgring? Never seen it! But it turned out to be the case. Friday’s roll-out went well, and we practiced, among other things, our starts.
Saturday morning was dedicated to practice heats. We mostly worked on “race” settings. We also noticed that our 10 kilos of ballast compared to the Audis actually made a difference on a single lap, around two tenths of a second. Right.
But qualifying nonetheless went very well, with me managing to turn in the second best lap time. Right away I felt that my car was very well balanced despite those 10 extra kilos, thanks to the incredible efforts of my team.
I passed Q1, Q2 and Q3 without a hitch and found myself in Q4, reserved for the four fastest drivers. I succeeded in punching out a good lap, making no mistakes, and clinched the second fastest lap time two tenths behind Tomczyck’s Audi, the equivalent of the weight-related handicap over one lap.
This great day ended with a pleasant dinner for the sponsors in the Mercedes VIP tent.
Sunday morning we again worked very hard for the race during the warm-up session, with long-run heats that were quite satisfying.
Then it was time to race. I got a good start, but in the third corner I felt a huge impact as Mathias Ekström’s Audi slammed into me on the rear left corner. I don’t know what he was thinking, if he forgot to brake or what. I don’t understand why he absolutely had to pass me at that precise spot.
“Hi everyone,
I’m writing to you after a somewhat disappointing weekend at Nürburgring that had started out with some great qualifying results.
For me, the event began as early as Thursday with a golf tournament near Nürburg organized by Klaus Ludwig, former DTM star. As is often the case in this region, the rain insisted on ruining our game, but we had fun anyways – I even managed to place second in the tournament!
 |
| Second place in qualifying was a good performance. |
Friday started out with a short jog to limber up. I then headed out to the track where this first day, as usual, was reserved for tech meetings and various marketing endeavours. After the previous day’s rain we were treated to a beautiful, sunny day. They were calling for nice summer weather all weekend long.
Personally, I had trouble believing it. Three nice days in a row at Nürburgring? Never seen it! But it turned out to be the case. Friday’s roll-out went well, and we practiced, among other things, our starts.
Saturday morning was dedicated to practice heats. We mostly worked on “race” settings. We also noticed that our 10 kilos of ballast compared to the Audis actually made a difference on a single lap, around two tenths of a second. Right.
But qualifying nonetheless went very well, with me managing to turn in the second best lap time. Right away I felt that my car was very well balanced despite those 10 extra kilos, thanks to the incredible efforts of my team.
I passed Q1, Q2 and Q3 without a hitch and found myself in Q4, reserved for the four fastest drivers. I succeeded in punching out a good lap, making no mistakes, and clinched the second fastest lap time two tenths behind Tomczyck’s Audi, the equivalent of the weight-related handicap over one lap.
This great day ended with a pleasant dinner for the sponsors in the Mercedes VIP tent.
Sunday morning we again worked very hard for the race during the warm-up session, with long-run heats that were quite satisfying.
Then it was time to race. I got a good start, but in the third corner I felt a huge impact as Mathias Ekström’s Audi slammed into me on the rear left corner. I don’t know what he was thinking, if he forgot to brake or what. I don’t understand why he absolutely had to pass me at that precise spot.