Esmee Hawkey had an excellent debut weekend in the DTM Championship last weekend.

She finished the opening race of the weekend in 15th place and had been running in 11th place for a number of laps of the race.

In the second race of the weekend on Sunday Esmee finished 17th having once again been running higher up the order.

Speaking at the end of her debut weekend, Hawkey said: “After a great day yesterday, I was really looking forward to getting back out on track today. I was a bit disappointed in myself in qualifying as I left some time on the table during the final sector on my fast lap, I think I was just overly cautious and not wanting to push too hard and make a mistake.

“The fact I was disappointed with P16 today shows how quickly I’m getting to grips with the step up to this level.”

“I really enjoyed the first half of the race, I was able to get my elbows out a bit and really push myself. My pace was really strong, I was able to overtake Glock quite quickly and I had a great battle with Maini and Rockenfeller just before my pit stop so I was fired up and really giving it my all.

“After my stop, I kept pushing but tyre degradation meant our pace dropped off more than we would’ve liked so that’s something we’ll look into between now and Lausitzring.

“Overall, it’s been a really positive weekend and I’ve learnt so much which I can’t wait to put to good use next time. As always, a huge thanks to the team for their support and efforts this weekend – the only way is forward from here.”

Photo courtesy of Michele Scudiero / Hoch Zwei