Consistency was key for the 22-year old R-Motorsport racing driver, who is mid-way through his debut touring car season. And, while he’s taken DTM points in the past, this weekend’s qualifying and race results were all solid and mistake-free.
“When you’re on a steep learning curve, it’s easy to make errors but, here at Norisring, we had a mistake-free weekend that was very consistent – I think this is key for building and developing both myself and the programme. I’m happy with my qualifying sessions, my pace in both of the races, and the overall finishing positions.
“It’s clear that pace-wise, our Aston Martin Vantage DTM car is not yet up there with the BMW and Audi, but I think I got the most I could out of it. All I can do is benchmark myself against my team-mates and I’m happy that I’ve been in the mix all weekend.”
Habsburg started race one from fifteenth on the grid and, after a good early pit-stop strategy, from the team, he ran strongly inside the top-ten. Despite his tyres ‘dropping off’ after more than 60 laps of the Norisring, he held on to his points position and crossed the line in tenth, taking the fastest Aston Martin lap of the race along the way.
After qualifying for race two in P15, just .005 seconds behind team-mate and former DTM championship-winner Paul Di Resta, he once again put in consistent and quick lap times throughout both of his stints to take eleventh place.
“I’ve really enjoyed this weekend. Aside from some good results and great racing, it’s been awesome to meet so many fans and, of course, it was an honour to be visited by H.S.H Prince Albert II of Monaco. The passion for DTM here is incredible – the grandstands and autograph sessions were rammed. I’m looking forward to the next round already – we’ll keep building from here and aim for our first double top-ten finish.”