Canadian-born Darryl O’Young (Audi A4) had his first taste of a DTM car on Friday in Shanghai.

O’Young, who was born in Vancouver, Canada, came in to replace Alexandre Premat behind the wheel of the Phoenix Team’s Audi A4. He had his first run in the car during the first free practice session held Friday afternoon in Shanghai, and feels very impressed.

"Everything about the DTM is fantastic," he told Auto123.com.

"Everyone at Audi Sport has been very supportive, from the other Audi drivers to the engineers and mechanics at Phoenix Audi. They have definitely made my learning curve much easier, so a great thank you to everyone for their support!

"The car is just perfect: the aerodynamics, the power, the brakes. It’s the quickest and most technologically advanced car I've ever driven. Now we just need the track to gain some grip and it'll be a really nice weekend," he said.

"I put a lot of energy in slowly building up speed during the session. I had to be really careful, as the walls are really close. I increased my speed lap after lap. I did a lot of pit stop practices and combined that with an eight-lap run.

"I'm pleased with my progress as I quickly became more comfortable with the brakes and the power. I'll try my best to gain more confidence with the aerodynamics as I had a couple big oversteers in the final corner Friday," he detailed.

"The circuit is very low grip at the moment as there isn't any other race series competing here this weekend, which means it's very dirty. There are definitely some big bumps around the circuit, but its nothing out of the ordinary from other street circuits.

"The difference here comes from the painted crosswalks on the tarmac, which are very slippery. This could make things quite interesting during the rest of the week-end."

O'Young qualified last on the grid for Sunday's event following a difficult qualifying session with many incidents in Shanghai Saturday.