Photo: Daimler Global Media

Daniel Juncadella upbeat after strong result in his DTM return

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Daniel Juncadella has returned to the DTM with Mercedes for this season after one year away from the championship. A bike crash barely a month before the first race at Hockenheim had his seat in doubt, but the Spaniard was able to complete a competitive race to finish eighth today.

Juncadella was operated by MotoGP specialist Dr. Xavier Mir 48 hours after his accident, having a prosthetic plate fitted on his left collarbone. Despite the severity of the procedure, the Mercedes driver was able to participate at the pre-season tests ahead of the season start.

“I wear a special protection so, in case of an accident, the harness won’t crush over the scar,” the Spaniard told TouringCarTimes. “But the shoulder doesn’t hurt me at all, it didn’t bother me in the tests and today, with a day of proper competition and a full race, it was the last thing on my mind.”

Juncadella qualified 13th on the grid for the race today, the slowest of the Mercedes: “My problem today is that the qualifying wasn’t good. I had brake issues that affected my confidence and qualified quite far back. We have a good car, but I need to get better confidence in the brakes to qualify better, as all the time I lose to Gary (Paffett) is in three braking points.”

The first stint of the race was complicated for Juncadella who found himself in the middle of the pack: “When you start in the middle of traffic is more difficult to move forward. Furthermore, I lost my right rear-view mirror and Nico Müller (Audi) overtook me, and that’s where I lost a lot of time as he was slower than me. If I hadn’t got stuck behind him, I could have even overtaken di Resta and finish higher up!

“One of the problems I had was that I nearly used up my DRS activations in the first stint, when the good one is the second, I lacked a bit of experience in that regard. Edo (Mortara) has advised me to leave the DRS for the second stint when we pit late, as there is much more to gain,” added the Team HWA driver.

Juncadella is looking forward to the second race when he hopes to improve on today’s result: “We have a good car, but I need to get better confidence in the brakes to qualify better, as all the time I lose to Gary (Paffett) is in three braking points, but today’s race has showed me that I can be very competitive, so that is also a boost for tomorrow.”