Augusto Farfus delighted with his first podium since the start of 2016

Augusto Farfus has said track knowledge has helped a little, after the Brazilian sailed to second position in the first race of the weekend at the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit in the UK, securing his first podium result since the season opener at Hockenheim over two years’ ago.

Farfus made his way from fifth to second, after topping the second practice session in his BMW Team RMG M4 DTM in the first race of the weekend.

The 34-year-old raced at the Brands Hatch GP circuit five times in the World Touring Car Championship between 2006 and 2010, then driving an Alfa Romeo 156 S2000 and a BMW 320si E90, winning the second race in 2009.

Although the DTM previously visited Brands Hatch from 2006 to 2013, it always raced on the shorter Indy layout.

“My last time here was a long time ago in a different car, but Brands has always been very kind to me,” said Farfus. “I really like this track layout, it’s a little bit like Nordschleife with these fast and blind corners.

“Straight out of the box the car felt really good, but qualifying didn’t go as expected – but we had a good start and were able to drive through and show our pace. I’m very happy to be back on the podium, it’s been a difficult beginning of the year, so we’re going to go back and work on the car and come back and try and beat these guys tomorrow.”

Rain is forecast for tomorrow, which may throw another spanner in the works for the DTM teams and drivers.

“I think we all prefer stable conditions. I’ve raced here in proper wet conditions in WTCC, and I think I wouldn’t mind if it was mixed, but we certainly prefer stable conditions. We’ll just have to take it as it comes, we are in England, yesterday they said it would only be showers, and the shower started at 9am and finished at eight in the evening.”