Current Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters points leader Gary Paffett had no better words to describe his performance at Circuit Park Zandvoort, other than it being a ‘perfect weekend’ for the Mercedes driver at the shores of the North Sea coast.
Having taken a near-perfect score from the 4.307-km circuit, the Briton now heads back home in three weeks’ time, as the series will compete in the Kent countryside for races 11 and 12 of the 2018 season.
“It was a perfect weekend, as I can’t complain with not winning both races but after having both positions and the first and the second place finish,” said the Suffolk-based driver, who now heads to the halfway point of the season with a 27-point lead over Stuttgart team mate Paul Di Resta.
“The car was great all race and we saw René [Rast] in our mirrors and when he opted to pit on lap one, but we didn’t react to that, we ran our own race and our strategy.”
Rast was able to continue to push his Team Rosberg RS5 DTM to a well-needed victory, after the German had lost out to a Safety Car phase that saw his Saturday strategy come to a grinding halt.
But for Paffett, it was about consistent consolidation of points, with a title up for grabs.
“We were on the side of being a little bit safer with our strategy. I pushed very hard at the start to get a gap to the guys behind and Philip was very slow at the start of the race. I’m going to get the guys behind and René was the only real threat.”
The 37-year-old was thinking that it was best to stay in second, and also admitted that the late Safety Car phase after Bruno Spengler’s spin at Tarzan did not provide him with any benefit.
“Luckily enough I caught up with René, but then were a queue of cars behind me who caught me up over the last few minutes of the race,” said the Brit, who was not wishing for any of the cars behind him to scupper his race.
“The team has done an amazing job. Credit to Renée and Team Rosberg – they’ve had an excellent weekend and they deserve something after yesterday.”