What Rene Rast accuses Maro Engel of after the collision, how the Winward Mercedes driver reacts and what professional driver Sheldon van der Linde has to say
The collision between Rene Rast and Maro Engel was the big upset of Sunday’s DTM race at the Nürburgring (race report): The Schubert-BMW driver shot down Winward-Mercedes driver Maro Engel, who was leading the race after adjusting for pit stops, immediately after his pit stop on lap 18, allowing Rast’s teammate Sheldon van der Linde to snatch victory
Rast had to serve three penalty lap penalties (equivalent to 15 seconds), but sees Engel as the culprit. “I was ahead of Maro before the corner – right up to the point when he turned in,” explains Rast, who does not understand the penalty. “It’s not as if he was in the corner and I came from behind and completely torpedoed him.”
Instead, Engel should have taken into account that he was on cold tires. “He came from the outside, turned in, but you can’t steer on cold tires, you have no grip. He should have known that I had no grip. And why he did it anyway? I have no idea!”
Rast on Engel: “There’s not much point in steering like that ”
“He also messed up my race with it.” Did he not expect Engel when he left the pits? “I would have expected him to either brake earlier and drive through the corner behind me or simply open up the brakes and take the wide angle. But there’s not much point in steering like that when I have warm tires. “
But what does Engel, who spun as a result of the incident, have to say about Rast’s statements? The Winward Mercedes driver didn’t want to say much at first, but said
Engel responds to Rast’s accusations: “Missed the braking point ”
“I think there was plenty of room on the inside when you hit the apex,” said Engel, not quite understanding the statement. Because the pictures show that the M4 GT3 was far away from the apex. “What can I say? Of course he was on cold tires, we are all on cold tires when we come out of the pits. I think he just missed the braking point, slid into me with understeer and that was it.”
Rast then dragged himself into the pits with a puncture on the front right and finished 17th, Engel lost around five seconds as a result of the incident and finished 3.2 seconds behind winner Sheldon van der Linde.
Profiteer Sheldon van der Linde: “It certainly wasn’t intentional ”
The winner was fair in a sporting sense after the race and sympathized with Engel. “I would have had difficulties catching up with him, I have to be fair. I don’t want to win like that after what happened in turn 1,” says Sheldon van der Linde. He doesn’t want to hear any strange conspiracy theories about Schubert team tactics: “I’m sure it wasn’t intentional. It was unfortunate.”
He did not see the incident himself because he was concentrating on his braking point, but he assumed that Rast had understeer: “It was also very slippery for me on the outlap on the new tires.”
But what is Engel’s mood after the turbulent race and second place? Unfortunately, we can’t turn back the clock, we’re looking forward. We can be satisfied with second place, that was a strong result,” says the Mercedes-AMG works driver, who is now only twelve points behind third place in the championship.
And knows that the collision could also have meant the end. “I didn’t know whether the car would stay intact. That was a hard blow,” he says. “I was really lucky. The steering was still straight. The tire pressures were also right. That was the luck we had today.”