Jamie Green: “My race was a bit of a disaster”

Audi’s Jamie Green has described his race at the Norisring as “a bit of a disaster” after he failed to finish on a day when team-mate, Mattias Ekström, took victory.

Green, who switched to Audi from Mercedes over the winter, has been touted as the ‘King of the Norisring’ after he took four victories in five seasons as a Mercedes driver.

However, after finishing 14th in Saturday’s qualifying session and retiring from the race with a paddle shift problem on lap 64, the Abt Sportsline driver described his afternoon as a “bit of a disaster” after the race and also revealed he suffered with low grip throughout due to first lap contact.

“My race was a bit of a disaster,” said Green. “My plan was to keep my nose clean in the first laps because I was starting on option tyres and I was trying to be as careful as possible, but I got kind of sandwiched by two cars in the middle of the first corner.

“I just struggled with low grip for the whole race and when I had a look at my car after the race, there was some quite severe damage on the front of the car.

“This is probably where the lack of grip came from as aerodynamically wise, it was quite damaged.”

Green then went on to praise Ekström’s efforts, after the Swede took Audi’s first victory in 11 years around its home track.

“It was great to see Mattias [Ekström] win, and I think it’s a long time since Audi have won here, so he must have done a fantastic job to go from 9th on the grid to winning.

“It’s very impressive, so congratulations to him.”