Schneider bows out with P6.

End of an era as Bernd Schneider completes his final DTM race.
Bernd Schneider finished sixth in the final DTM race of his career at the Hockenheimring last weekend.

The Mercedes stalwart, who announced prior to the event that he had made the decision to retire, admitted that his last race was not perfect, but he still found it 'good fun'.

The 44-year-old, who is easily the most successful driver in DTM history, with no fewer than five titles to his name, also took time to congratulate Timo Scheider on winning the 2008 DTM drivers' title and to thank Mercedes for their support over the years.

"Well done Timo Scheider for winning the championship title. Paul [di Resta] also had a great season and would have deserved it," he said.

"My race today was not perfect, but it was great fun, particularly during the last couple of laps.

"It was great to see the fans on the Mercedes-Benz grandstand say 'good-bye'.

"I want to thank everybody, especially my team - they have been and still are good friends and are like a family for me."

While his career was drawing to a close though, Ralf Schumacher was just coming to the end of his first season in the German tin-top series. He ended up 14th at the Hockenheimring unable to add to the points he notched up at Catalunya and at the Nurburgring.

Despite only scoring three points this season though, the ex-F1 winner reckoned his debut season wasn't too bad.

"On the first lap of the race I damaged the front splitter and therefore I was not able to improve. However, all in all I am quite satisfied with my DTM debut year. I scored points on two occasions with my last year's car which is quite okay," he summed-up.

Powered by Crash.net