TOWERING OVER THE OPPOSITION?: Gary Paffett, Katherine Legge and Oliver Jarvis at Tower Bridge. PICTURE BY SIMON HILDREW

GARY Paffett is intent on making the summit seat of championship leader Bruno Spengler even more uncomfortable when the DTM series rolls into Brands Hatch this weekend.

To send a link to this page to a friend, simply enter their email address below.

The message will include the name and email address you gave us when you signed up.

Email address

  Send link

To send a link to this page to a friend, you must be logged in.

GARY Paffett is intent on making the summit seat of championship leader Bruno Spengler even more uncomfortable when the DTM series rolls into Brands Hatch this weekend.

The Bromley-born ace, 29, cut the once-considerable deficit to his Mercedes team-mate to just nine points at the previous round in Zandvoort last month, when his race victory favourably outscored Spengler’s seventh place.

Now though, the Salzgitter AMG Mercedes speedster wants to make further inroads into the Canadian’s diminishing advantage at the West Kingsdown-based track.

“I think he’s thinking it already,” Paffett replied when asked whether another good performance in north Kent would have Spengler fearing the title is slipping away from his grasp.

“He had a points gap of 17 and if you go into a race, qualify seventh and finish seventh while your team-mate wins, you’ve got to think that perhaps your team-mate is catching up and you’ve got to step up.

“In the last couple of races, we’ve been on the pace, or quicker, than him and – if it continues that way – we’ll overtake him before the end of the year, so he’s certainly got to be feeling the pressure.”

Paffett would, naturally, like nothing more than to take a massive step towards a second DTM crown at his home raceway.

However, he is equally aware that Spengler will be out to reaffirm his own credentials in the backyard of the Brit pack.

“It’s the same motivation for him,” the Hawkedon-based driver explained. “He’d love to come here and beat us on home turf.

“It’s the same motivation for all of the drivers; everybody has got a point to prove here.

“We’ll see. We all want to come here and do our best, but there can only be one winner and – hopefully – it’s me.”

It would be probably be deemed far-fetched for Paffett to overhaul Spengler in this round, with the former needing another victory and the latter to finish out of the points for that to occur.

Nonetheless, the target is currently more achievable and solid displays here and in the stages to come could potentially make all the difference.

“The gap is a lot closer than it was,” Paffett said. “It was 17 points and now it’s only nine.

“At 17 points, when the gap was growing, it was looking difficult. Now, it has come down a lot and is a lot more realistic.

“If we can have a couple of good races, and score a few more points than Bruno, then the championship is alive again.

“Nine points is a fair gap still, but – with a couple more good results – we could be right back close to the front again.”

Paffett’s recent form has left him feeling “pretty good about things” and, with his confidence “very high at the moment”, he’s looking forward to challenging for a third success in front of family, friends and fans.

“It’s great to be able to come here to a home crowd and feel the support you get,” the McLaren F1 test driver enthused.

“You get a lot of support from the home crowd and I’ve got a lot of family in the area around Bromley and a lot of people coming along. It certainly makes for a great atmosphere.”

He added: “With podiums in the last two races and, especially winning at Zandvoort, we’ve got to go to Brands looking to win again.

“We’ve got a good car at the moment and the speed has been good in the last couple of races in particular, so we’ve got to go there full of confidence that we can certainly challenge for the front row in qualifying and the win. That’s definitely the aim.”