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Fighting fifth in Oschersleben

Jamie Green kept up his points-scoring start to the 2008 DTM season with a fighting fifth place in Oschersleben.

A great start put Jamie in the fight for fourth place with Oliver Jarvis going through the first two corners. But as Jamie held the line on the apex for the second turn there was contact between his Mercedes C-class and Jarvis’s Audi. This caused Jarvis to be spun around, while Jamie was delayed as he avoided the spinning car.

“I don’t know whether he didn’t see me, or was just trying to squeeze me, but I was half way alongside him. You don’t brake for that corner, so it wasn’t like I was making a late lunge, I was just holding my line,” said Jamie.

“It’s a shame, because the car was feeling quite good in the warm-up, but after that there was some damaged bodywork at the back and the balance was never as good after that.”

Jamie dropped back into a queue headed by reigning DTM champ Mattias Ekstrom. The Swede’s car was also damaged and he was holding a long line of cars up. Jamie managed to find a way past the champ and another good move on Mike Rockenfeller took him into fifth place.

In the closing stages he had to fend off a strong challenge from Markus Winkelhock, but Jamie held on to claim four points, which moves him into fifth place in the championship.

“Who knows what could have happened without the first lap tangle?” he said. “Realistically third was the best we could have hoped for, and maybe if the hit hadn’t taken place I could have challenged Bruno [Spengler] for third. But fifth in the circumstances is another good result. It’s points on the board, which is important. Now we just have to keep pushing harder and try to get podiums and wins.”

The series heads to Mugello in Italy for the next round in two weeks’ time. Last year Jamie retired from the event, so his first aim is to get to the finish this time around.

“It wasn’t a great track for us last year, but we’ve tested there a couple of times since and I feel we’ve made progress with the car. Audi clearly has a good car at the moment, but I think the Mercedes is good too - we’ll just have to push a little bit harder. I’m fairly positive of a strong result in Mugello.”