Last weekend Johannes Seidlitz did his first overseas race with his AUDI A4 DTM 07 in Brands Hatch. The free practice on the 1.929 km ”Indy-track“ went well for Johannes in Brands Hatch. He did some short runs and one long run. He only had a problem with the front suspension of his car and did 61 laps in total. Nothing worked in hands in qualifying for Johannes. He didn’t get his best sector times in one lap together. In the first qualifying segment Johannes improved his qualifying time but he wasn’t satisfied with it. After qualifying Johannes was penalised for blocking Ralf Schumacher. At the end of his qualifying on the way back to the pit, Johannes checked his rear mirror too late. When Johannes saw Ralf Schumacher’s Mercedes in his rear mirror he switched to the left but Ralf Schumacher also switched to the left. When Johannes switched to the right Ralf Schumacher did the same. Unfortunately both drove to the same side. Johannes got the minimum penalty for this action. He had to start five positions down on the grid. In additon to that he got a fine of 2000 Euros. Due to his qualifying position the penalty of going five places down didn’t do any harm to Johannes.

The race didn’t go well from Johannes’ point of view. The start went well but before turn one Johannes backed off because he wanted to survive in the first corner. Johannes and his team KOLLES Futurecom-TME had planed a long first stint for the race. The plan didn’t work out because Johannes had to come to the pit in lap 15 which was an unscheduled stop due to a puncture. The pit stop window for the mandatory pit stops was in lap 24 to 70. So Johannes had to come to the pit for a tyre change before the pit stop window was open. That meant three instead of two pit stops for Johannes in the race. Due to the short circuit that meant Johannes got passed very often and had to drive offline again and again. It was very difficult because there was a lot of dirt offline. For Johannes it was difficult to push hard with dirty tyres and he tried to get the grip back. Finally Johannes crossed the finish line on P17 and stated: “I am not happy with the weekend. The short track was a handicap for us. I am looking forward to Barcelona, the Circuit de Catalunya is a longer track with a longer straight and I think we will have better chances there.“

The next DTM race will take place on the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona on the 20th September 2009.