Gary Paffett remains confident of taking his second DTM title, despite Bruno Spengler slashing his championship lead to just 11 points at Oschersleben last weekend.
Paffett, who has sat at the head of the points standings since the opening race of the season, held a 40-point advantage after round four, but has seen that gap wiped out thanks to Spengler's two wins in the last three races. The British driver still believes that the pace of his HWA Mercedes will be more than sufficient to help him take his second DTM crown.
"Eleven points isn't a huge gap and I know that," Paffett said. "But I know that I probably only have to beat him in one of the two remaining races to win the championship.
"What gives me the most confidence is that while he may have taken points off me in the last four races, he's only had better pace than me in one of them, and that was at the Nurburgring. At Oschersleben we were pretty much equal and at the Norisring and Zandvoort I was faster, but lost places because other people spun me around."
Paffett's previous title came after a to-and-fro battle with Audi's Mattias Ekstrom in 2005.
"That year we were swapping the lead of the points every race, and then at the penultimate race in Turkey I won and he didn't score so I only had to finish in the top six in the last race to be the champion," he added. "This time I'm 11 points ahead and that's significant. I'd much rather have 11 points of an advantage than have to close them down."