"Monza is over, we are now into the FIA World Touring Car Championship and I have to admit I am satisfied with the way the weekend went. I got a fourth and fifth in the two races and am currently fourth overall in the championship standings. In fact I thought coming away with seven points would have been good, so scoring nine was above expectations.

"While some people may think that was not the way to start a season when I hope to win back to back championships, I have been looking at the bigger picture and this was perhaps the perfect start. This year there is a revised system for awarding ballast penalties and I reckon finishing in these sort of positions could easily win me the title. The way the system works now makes it more difficult to drop the ballast and if you keep in the points, but away from the positions where heavy weight penalties are given, it will keep the car light and, therefore, fast.

"My RBM team did a great job for me. We know we have some more work to do on the car, but I have no complaints about the BMW 320i they gave me this weekend. It worked perfectly and if this is how it goes on the first weekend, I know we will soon be well up there. However, having said this there was no problem with my speed as I only missed out on fastest lap in race one by the smallest margin - Dirk Müller's fastest lap time was 1min 59.552secs and mine was 1min 59.553secs - and was also second fastest in race two, this time behind Jörg Müller.

"It was, in fact, a great weekend for BMW and I was delighted BMW Motorsport Director, Mario Theissen was there to see what we could do for the marque. I must congratulate Dirk and Jörg, who both put in amazing performances. Dirk converted his pole to a race one win and then Jörg's drive in race two from 29th on the grid to fourth overall was nothing short of amazing. We didn't know how competitive Alfa were going to be, and I am delighted on their home territory we showed most of them the way.

"Now I need to get ready for Magny Cours where I am sure BMW Team UK will have another strong showing."