After a long winter break the Hockenheimring was venue of the opening round of the DTM 2009 – as well as the 100. DTM race since the renaissance of this popular series in the year 2000.
And from the very beginning the one year old cars of both manufacturers proved to be much more competitive in comparison to the new vehicles than they were in the past year. Susie Stoddart managed to step up to the second qualifying section, where the 14. starting position promised to be a good basis for the race on Sunday.
"I am even a little disappointed about my qualifying as the gap to my team mate Maro Engel was quite big", Susie confessed. "I was not fully happy with the balance of my car. But we have a good idea what to do for tomorrow which makes me very optimistic."
But once again the race in front of 91.000 spectators couldn’t match Susies ambitions. Already moved up to 10th position after a very good start the TV Spielfilm AMG-Mercedes C class was hit by the airborne engine cover of her team mate Gary Paffetts car. "Immediately after that my steering wheel was askew and the car lost a lot of performance. As the cooling inlets were also damaged, the water temperatur rose to a critical level. So I had to stop the car after lap 24 to prevent bigger damage to the engine", the Scotswoman explained.
Still the 26 year old wasn’t too disappointed: "It’s a shame because this race could have been a successful one for me. But things like that can happen during the first lap. Much more important is the fact that we are on pace. The EuroSpeedway Lausitz should suit us better than Hockenheim, in addition our car will be 10 kilos lighter there than the Audi. I am quite confident and look forward to the race on May 31st."
