“I was extremely satisfied with grid position six,” said Oliver about Qualifying where he was just one tenth of a second slower than pole sitter Timo Scheider. “Things weren’t going perfectly in practice yet for Qualifying, we got it right on the dot.”

In fact, a total of four Audi A4 DTM cars started the race from the first four rows of the grid on Sunday’s race day (31 August).  Oliver made a strong start gaining one race position but the changeable weather conditions were always going to make for an interesting race with intermittent rain, then sunshine.

“At the start, I made up ground but on the following laps ‘Eki’ and Jamie Green managed to overtake me,” explained Oliver after the race.  At the first pitstop I lost another position to Gary Paffett, who had pitted earlier.  While trying to attack him, I briefly left the track and lost even more ground.  It just wasn’t my day.”

Oliver had to be content with finishing in 12^th place in a race that was ultimately won by Audi’s Timo Scheider.