Paffett predicts more wins in 2007

The 2005 champion became the first driver to win a DTM race in a year-old car on Sunday, and he believes that it will be possible again later in the year.

"At some point in the season, when we get to a track that suits us or where we are light, we can win again," Paffett told autosport.com.

The 26-year-old won on Sunday despite the 2006 Mercedes being the second heaviest car in the field, but Paffett believes that the addition of more success ballast will make it hard to compete for the win next time out at Lausitz.

"Lausitz will be different, and it will be harder because of the weight," he added. "But we've just got to deal with that and get on with it.

"We came to Oschersleben expecting it to be very hard, but it turned out that it wasn't, so we'll go to Lausitz expecting it to be hard again and see what we can do."

The success ballast system in the DTM means that cars receive ballast depending on their performance against their rivals in machinery of the same age, and Paffett is expecting the weights of the cars to change drastically through the year.

"The weight won't always go against us," he said. "We've proven that you can win in an old car, and now we have done that, there is nothing stopping us doing it again."

Paffett is currently fourth in the DTM standings, although he is just one point adrift of a three-way tie for the lead in the championship.