| 2010 | |
|---|---|
| 16/02 | |
| 11/01 | |
| 2009 | |
| Dijon | 11/10 |
| Circuit de Catalunya | 20/09 |
| Brands Hatch | 06/09 |
| Nurburgring | 16/08 |
| Oschersleben | 02/08 |
| Zandvoort | 19/07 |
| Norisring | 07/07 |
| Norisring | 01/07 |
| Birthday | 25/06 |
| EuroSpeedway Lausitz | 31/05 |
| Hockenheim | 17/05 |
| New Season | 22/04 |
| 2008 | |
| Hockenheim | 26/10 |
| Le Mans | 05/10 |
| Barcelona | 21/09 |
| Brands Hatch | 01/09 |
| Nurburgring | 27/07 |
| Zandvoort | 13/07 |
| Norisring | 29/06 |
| EuroSpeedway | 18/05 |
| Mugello | 04/05 |
| Oschersleben | 20/04 |
| Hockenheim | 13/04 |
| Hockenheim | 12/04 |
| 2007 | |
| Hockenheim | 14/10 |
| Barcelona | 24/09 |
| Nurburgring | 02/09 |
| Zandvoort | 29/07 |
| Mugello | 15/07 |
| Norisring | 24/06 |
| Brands Hatch | 10/06 |
| Lausitz | 20/05 |
| Oschersleben | 01/05 |
| Hockenheim | 22/04 |
| 0000 | |
| 00/00 |
Norisring Victory!
What a weekend...
The car felt good in free practice and my lap times were competetive. I felt quite confident going into qualifying but there was always a chance of rain so I wasnt sure how things would go in wet conditions. Q1 was wet and I finished in P1 so I was happy to see that we also had a chance in wet conditions.
Q2 the track dried out and everyone changed onto slick tyres - I did a good enough time to progress into Q3. It started to rain lightly just before Q3 so we started our run immediatley to make sure that we set a time on slick tyres just in case the rain increased. The rain stopped so the circuit was improving throughout the session. We finished Q3 in P1 but we had forgotten about the regulation that states you can only complete 8 timed laps in Q3. Therefore the stewards erased my laps from Q3, which meant I had to start the race from grid 7.
I felt confident before the race but also a little bit on edge because there was the chance of rain during the race. As i was putting my helmet on to get into the car there was slight rain on the windscreen but it never happened. I made a good start and took advantage of the fact that Katherine Legge stalled and was able to over take Maro Engel around the outside of turn 1. During the first stint I was close to Gary Paffett and when he came in for his first pit stop I was able to improve my lap times with a clear track and maintain that speed up until my first pitstop on lap 40. During my second stint i was able to go even quicker with fresh tyres and this meant that i rejoined in P3 after my second pit stop. I came out of the pits side by side with Bruno Spengler into turn 1 but i was on the outside. Timo Scheider was leading and Bruno was catching him, so i settled in behind Bruno and allowed him to focus on catching and overtaking Timo. Myself and Bruno followed Timo for around 17 laps before Bruno overtook at the last corner. Bruno then made a mistake on the following corner and ran wide allowing Timo and myself to pass. It was then down to me to take on the fight with Timo on Mercedes behalf. I put Timo under pressure for 2 laps and then made a move into the chicane on the penultimate lap. It was risky but I knew it was a risk worth taking. Me and Timo were door to door into the chicane but the contact was minimal and I believe it was a fair move. When i exited the chicane i had a small gap over Bruno who also benefitted from the overtaking move on Timo. When exiting the last corner I was praying that there was only one lap to go - when I saw L1 on my pit board I knew that if i didnt make any mistakes the win would be mine..
When i crossed the finishing line I was very happy and relieved and all I could hear was my race engineer Martin shouting over the radio - it was hard to believe that we had won in the year old car!
I would like to say a huge thanks to Mercedes Benz, HWA, everyone at Team Persson and especially my mechanics and my race engineer Martin Marx.
See you all in Zandvoort.
PS thank you for all the supportive messages!!
Jamie
