Three-time DTM champion Rene Rast has blamed Mercedes rival Maro Engel for the collision that decided Sunday's DTM race on the Nürburgring.
Schubert BMW driver Rast was attempting to take the lead from the pits on lap 18 when a tussle broke out with the motive force of Engel’s Winward Mercedes at Turn 1.
Television footage showed the 37-year-old missed the apex as Engel tried to pass him on the skin into the right-hander. The contact sent the 37-year-old right into a half-spin, losing first place to Sheldon van der Linde.
The stewards found Rast accountable for the collision and handed him a three-lap penalty (the MotoGP equivalent of a protracted lap in DTM), but consider the three-time Macau GT winner was at fault.
“I was ahead of Maro before the corner – until he turned. It wasn't like he was in the corner and I came from behind and completely destroyed him,” said Rast, who also had a flat right front tire and dropped to seventeenth.
“He got here from the skin, turned in. But you may't steer on cold tires, you’ve got no grip. He must have known I had no grip.
“Why did he even do that?” [when his tyres were up to temperature]? I don’t know!”
René Rast, Schubert Motorsport BMW M4 GT3, Maro Engel, Mercedes-AMG WINWARD Team Mercedes-AMG GT3
Photo: Alexander Trienitz
“He also ruined my race,” he added in an interview with German television station ran.de.
“I expected him to either brake early and go through the corner behind me, or just let go of the brakes and go wide. But turning like that when my tires are [not] “”warmth” doesn't make much sense.”
Engel disagreed with Rast's claim and argued that his rival must have been more careful with the braking point on cold tires.
“The pictures speak for themselves,” he told Motorsport-Total.com, Autosport’s sister title.
“I feel there was quite a lot of room inside after we got to the highest.
“What can I say? Of course he was on cold tyres, we're all on cold tyres when we come out of the pits. I think he just missed the braking point, understeered into me and that was it.”
Engel admitted he was lucky to proceed racing after the half-spin, although he ultimately lost what was an almost certain victory to a different driver, van der Linde's BMW Schubert.
He had already had a duel with the South African early within the race, which put him in a transparent lead on the Nürburgring.
“I didn't know if the car would stay intact. It was a big blow,” he said. “I was really lucky. The steering was still straight. The tire pressure was also right. That was our luck.”
Van der Linde took his first victory of the season and moved as much as fourth overall, a 3.2-second lead on the Nürburgring that was significantly smaller than the five seconds Engel lost as a result of a spin.
“To be honest, I would have struggled to catch him. I don't want to win like that after what happened in Turn 1,” said van der Linde.
“I'm sure it wasn't intentional. It was unfortunate. It was also very slippery on the out-lap on new tyres.”
