Mattias Ekström: Hockenheim a “weekend to forget”

Abt Sportstline Audi’s Mattias Ekström has described the DTM season opener as a “weekend to forget” after a messy race at Hockenheim.

In the run up to the race, the 2004 and 2007 title winner had praised the improvements the team had made to give the RS5 “a stronger front end”, which he hoped would allow him to extract more performance from it. On Saturday the improvements seemed to have worked and saw him qualify fifth for yesterday’s race.

However, Ekström’s race was blighted by contact with Christian Vietoris’ Mercedes and Audi stablemate Edoardo Mortara. His nightmare weekend was compounded on lap 28 when his car – now without a bonnet – pulled off the track due to a broken driveshaft.

“[It] was pretty much as bad as it could have got,” said Ekström after the race, speaking to TouringCarTimes.

“No points and a crashed car, so [it was] a weekend to forget.”

“I didn’t have a great start by any means. I went inside of Vietoris and then Paffett came from the right, so suddenly there was no space and I got squeezed in between them.

“I think the front flicks were really badly damaged and somehow the left side of the car got stuck into Vietoris and I couldn’t dislodge it. I tried to steer but the car wouldn’t.”

Ekström also took responsibility for the accident with Mortara, which saw the Italian’s car become too severely damaged to continue later in the race. He also said the lost bonnet of his car affected its braking performance and cited this as the main cause of the incident.

“I then had a run on the grass and on the straight the bonnet flew off,” said Ekström.

“The next time I touched the brakes, it didn’t have the same braking performance so I drove into him [Mortara].”

Despite his messy race, Ekström said he felt comfortable with the RS5 all weekend and will take this feeling into the next round at Brands Hatch.

“I have to say in quali on Saturday I felt really good in the wet.

“On the formation lap to the grid I felt very comfortable. Unfortunately I couldn’t even do one race lap with the car in one piece.

“I have to keep smiling and just wait for Brands Hatch to see how it is in race trim.

“It was really a shame I didn’t get the chance to try it in full race conditions with the car in one piece, but things like this happen when you’re in the middle of the pack.”