DTM championship leader Bruno Spengler says he will have to take risks in Sunday's title decider after his disastrous qualifying.
The Mercedes driver crashed in morning practice and again in Q1 on Saturday, leaving him 17th on the grid while his title pursuers – Paul di Resta and Gary Paffett – share the front row.
Spengler was philosophical about his plight on Saturday evening in China, and he added that he is expecting a tough race for everyone on the streets of Shanghai.
"This is the kind of thing that can happen on a street track," said Spengler. "I just tried to find a couple of meters in the braking zone at Turn 2, and it's so slippery there so I hit the wall.
"I will have to be careful at the start to make sure I avoid any accidents on the first lap, but at some point I am going to have to take some risks. I need to get into the points, and we have a fast car so we have a good chance if we can have a clean race."
Spengler added that he does not want to take too many chances early in the race, in case things develop in his favor later on.
"On a track like this you can have an accident at any point in the race," he said. "So I don't want to find myself out of the race early and then something happens that I could have taken advantage of if I was still running. Anything can happen, so I will push hard in the race to get into the points."