Joel Eriksson looks to improve in qualifying after a “perfect race”

BMW Motorsport driver Joel Eriksson was satisfied with his performance at Zandvoort today, finishing in the points after a poor qualifying session.

“I started P15 and I knew it was going to be hard to climb up to the points but I know it was possible with a good strategy and a good pit stop,” Eriksson told TouringCarTimes.

“My start wasn’t perfect, but the car was really, really good and really fast. I stayed out long, so I had some free air to be able to push a lot,” added the Swede. “We had a good pit stop and I was P10 when I came out. The race and everything was perfect today. We need to work on the qualifying.”

“From my side in the race I think everything was spot on today, I’m very happy with my performance as drivers, the DRS strategy and the tyre management was perfect today, so I’m going to keep with it. Now we have to work as a team to find some pace in qualifying, and we need to step up a bit for tomorrow,” said the Team RBM driver.

Eriksson is one of three rookies this season, which comes to its halfway point this weekend. Asked for an evaluation of his DTM experience so far, Eriksson said: “It has been difficult, as all the other guys come from some GT experience, whilst I come from single seaters, and adjusting is quite hard.

“You have to get used to the races, as you can have quite a bit of contact, which you cannot do in single seaters. I saw this in Hockenheim and it takes a bit to get used to it.

“Another thing is the pit stops, as it was quite difficult in the beginning. In single seaters, you just aim for the guy in the middle of the car and you position the car correctly. But here you are seating on the left side and you have the mechanic on the right side, so I had to do a lot of practice in the simulator to get the pit stops right.

“But, after half of the season, I feel quite comfortable with the DTM car,” concluded Eriksson.