Abt’s title contender Ricardo Feller loses third place due to a five-second penalty for collision with Jack Aitken: Abt and Emil Frey team disagree
Ricardo Feller’s joy over his 250th Abt podium finish did not last long, as the Swiss driver collected a five-second penalty for his post-race collision with the Emil Frey Ferrari of Jack Aitken. As a result, SSR Lamborghini driver Franck Perera inherits third place, while Feller drops to seventh behind Thomas Preining and Thierry Vermeulen.
At Abt, they cannot understand the decision of the stewards at all. “For me, this penalty is incomprehensible,” said Abt sports director Martin Tomczyk. “This is a way of preventing people from seeing cool racing in the DTM. That was always the DNA of the DTM.”
And the Swiss is not aware of any blame either. “For me, it was a normal racing accident in which nobody is fully to blame,” says Feller. “Jack came out of the pits with cold tyres, I already had warm tyres. “
Feller: “He defended himself aggressively and moved over “
After Aitken’s contact immediately after his stop on lap 17 with Luca Stolz, whose tyres were also already up to temperature, “a gap opened up and I took advantage of it,” Feller explained. “He defended himself aggressively and moved over. To be penalised for something like that is incomprehensible to me.”
The sports commissioners justified the penalty by saying that the analysis of the TV footage clearly showed that Feller had caused the collision and was solely responsible. Under normal circumstances he would have received a penalty lap penalty, which has now been changed to a five-second time penalty.
Aitken complained over the radio immediately after the action, “Damn, my car is damaged. He pushed me off.” The Ferrari driver, who had thought he had a chance of third place before that, then rolled back to the pits with a puncture at the left rear and was forced to retire for the second consecutive race.
Feller thought that Stolz caused Aitken’s puncture
Interestingly, Feller was even under the impression at first that the puncture was not caused by him. “I think the puncture came earlier because he also had contact with Luca”, “In my opinion he went into the corner too fast and that’s why he lost the car a bit. “
However, Emil Frey team boss Lorenz Frey-Hilti can rule that out. “The damage was clearly caused by the collision with Ricardo,” And the question of guilt is also clear to him, because Feller was not even close to the same height as the Ferrari during the collision.
“With Jack’s inboard camera you don’t see Ricardo, but since the damage to the car is at the rear and the rim was badly damaged, the case is actually clear,” Frey-Hilti said. “Also, the inboard camera shows that Jack first got one on the rear and then one on the side door. It was two blows. “
Abt sports director Tomczyk: “Is setback in title fight “
However, the anger at compatriot Feller remains within bounds. “Ricardo has driven with us for a long time and usually drives very decently,” he points to their time together at Lamborghini in 2020 and 2021. “He would never do that on purpose – and that went very badly. “
However, he said he was “extremely frustrated” that Feller initially went unpunished following the three penalty lap penalties for Kelvin van der Linde after his collision with Maro Engel. “That was very tough for us because we had the potential for the podium.”
Feller is now 31 points behind DTM leader Mirko Bortolotti in the championship instead of 24. “In the title fight, this is obviously a setback,” said Abt sports director Tomczyk. “But those who know us know that we never give up. “