What exactly went wrong during Thierry Vermeulen’s pit stop, why the rest stop crash also had a negative impact and what role the HRT pit strategy played
Emil-Frey-Ferrari youngster Thierry Vermeulen was the moral winner of Sunday’s DTM race at the Sachsenring (race report). From the surprising pole, the son of Max Verstappen’s manager Raymond Vermeulen had everything under control before he was informed by radio that he would receive a penalty lap penalty for an offense during the pit stop, which dropped him back to third place behind Luca Stolz and Kelvin van der Linde.
“I didn’t really know what was going on,” he initially assumed that his crew had prepared the tires too early, but the infringement was not really resolved on TV either. So what had happened?
Specifically, it was a case of carelessness on the part of the mechanic at the left rear. “During a pit stop, the person fitting the wheel must always have at least one hand on the wheel,” explains Emil Frey’s head of technology Jürg Flach. “Because he still had to adjust his glasses, that wasn’t the case for a moment. He knows exactly and would love to sink into the ground. “
Hand not on the wheel for several seconds
How could that happen? “Everyone who does the pit stop knows that”, ”There’s no explanation – he doesn’t know.” In fact, the camera footage shows that the mechanic comes out of the pits later than his colleagues on the right-hand side with the wheel and places it on his foot – and does not have his hands on the wheel for several seconds.
This is prohibited for safety reasons, because the bike must always be under control after crossing the line into the so-called “fast lane” in order to avoid potential accidents. The penalty was extremely bitter for Vermeulen, as it deprived the 22-year-old Dutchman of his first DTM victory
Punished twice by driving through penalty lap zone
How did he react when the team informed him by radio? “At that moment, you just try to get onto the podium somehow,” he says with a cool head. “The lap before the penalty lap was like a qualifying lap for me. I gave it everything I had, but it wasn’t enough to stay in second place or even win. “
And driving through the penalty lap zone at 50 km/h, which is equivalent to a five-second time penalty, was an additional disadvantage: “There was so much rubber off the racing line that it took me a lap or two before I could even think about following Kelvin. ”
Bitter pill for Vermeulen: “That really hurts ”
After the race, Vermeulen proved his morale and put up a brave front, but you could tell how much the lost victory hurt him. “You win and lose together, but it really hurts. It has to sink in now, at least for a few hours. “
Vermeulen’s bad luck: The three-way crash involving Rene Rast, Jordan Pepper and Marco Wittmann forced the safety car onto the track, as a result of which the Emil Frey Ferrari driver also lost his two-second lead immediately before the penalty lap.
“Otherwise, he would probably have at least finished second despite the penalty lap,” says Emil Frey Technical Director Flach. “That didn’t play into our hands either.” In fact, Vermeulen opened the window on Stolz again by two seconds before the penalty, so would probably have had a four-second lead. “I’m very sorry for Thierry. It was his race. “
Winning HRT team had a hand in the pit stop mishap?
Profiteer Stolz, who took the first Mercedes-AMG victory of the year, has a similar view. “He was the fastest today.” Nevertheless, the Emil Frey team may have played a part in the mishap in the pits: after Stolz was unable to follow at the start, they decided to challenge Vermeulen on strategy.
“We tried to force them to make a pit stop. And in the end, they made a mistake. Sometimes you win a race like that. Today I was a bit lucky – and he was unlucky. “
