Pepper pile after crash DTM regular place

“I would love to return in the future,” he says. “Even more so because we still have a score to settle,” the unfortunate end to the weekend has further aroused his pride. “I'm hungry for more. Hopefully I can compete in the DTM again and make amends.”

Pepper, who knew the Sachsenring from the ADAC GT Masters, actually offered a strong performance, even if there was no happy ending.

Pepper proud: “Was in the top 10 in every session”

In both qualifying sessions he was the second-best Lamborghini driver, coming in eighth. In Saturday's race he finished tenth and drove the fastest Lamborghini lap in the field.

Even though Sunday's race “didn't end the way we had hoped, I won't let that spoil this incredible weekend – from start to finish,” said the ex-girlfriend of former DTM driver Esmee Hawkey, drawing a positive conclusion. “I was in the top 10 in every session. I can be proud of that on my debut.”

Why Grasser takes his hat off to Pepper

He had already known before the weekend “that it is not easy to enter a championship like the DTM so late and without testing, but we did it.” In addition to the strong field of drivers, this also has to do with the Pirelli tires, which are not allowed to be heated in the DTM, which drives even experienced drivers to despair time and again, especially in qualifying.

That was not the case with Pepper, confirms team boss Gottfried Grasser. “You have to take your hat off to him: the last time he drove with the cold Pirelli wheel was in 2016,” he said in an interview with Motorsport-Total.com, referring to the ADAC GT Masters races in the Abt Bentley. “And that was a completely different tire to the one we have now.”

Grasser's conclusion: “Jordan did really well on both days. He didn't have a test to prepare and was immediately competitive.”

Further DTM appearances in 2024 excluded

But do we want to see the friend of the Van der Linde brothers, who lived with them in a shared apartment in Kempten and was nicknamed “Jürgen Pfeffer” by Kelvin, back in the DTM?

Even if Engelhart is unable to compete in Spielberg after his knee operation, Pepper, who has been a Lamborghini factory driver since last year, will not be available. “There is no chance this year because he has overlaps with the GT Open series at the next two DTM events,” says Grasser.

In the GT series, Pepper shares the Oregon Lamborghini with former DTM driver Alessio Deledda, who is fighting for the title there. “That's his main task, but we knew that,” says the Austrian.

Therefore, Pepper's focus as far as a DTM commitment is concerned is already on the year 2025. “Let's see what the future brings,” says Pepper, who also started for Grasser in the GT World Challenge Europe this year and drove the Abt Lamborghini on the Nordschleife.