Formula One remains the ultimate ambition for McLaren test driver Gary Paffett, but until that opportunity arises, he is content keeping himself at the cutting edge in DTM, the German touring car series which storms into Brands Hatch in Kent this weekend.

Paffett, 28, has been close to an F1 drive for the past few years but found himself overtaken by Lewis Hamilton at McLaren. He is still hopeful but had no intention of losing his competitiveness by restricting himself to testing like Ferrari's Luca Badoer. He got himself a drive in a Mercedes DTM car and is now challenging for the title.

He won the DTM championship in 2005 and although he is currently in third place, six points behind leader, Audi's Timo Scheider, with four races remaining, Paffett believes he can put this year's title bid back on track at Brands, although he isn't relying too much on home advantage as he blasts around the circuit in his awesome four-litre V8 Merc which does 0-60 in around three seconds.

He said: "You would think that being at a home track which I know really well would give me an advantage but at this level it takes the other drivers no more than 10 laps to get to grips with the circuit, but it's nice to have that home support which can give you a real boost."