Three-time DTM champion Rene Rast has blamed Mercedes rival Maro Engel for the clash that decided Sunday’s DTM race at the Nurburgring.
Schubert BMW driver Rast was trying to take the lead after exiting the pits on lap 18 when he came to blows with the Winward Mercedes of Engel into Turn 1.
The TV images showed the 37-year-old missing the apex as Engel tried to go around the outside of him into the right-hander, with the contact sending the latter into half a spin and costing him first position to Sheldon van der Linde.
Rast was deemed responsible for the collision by the stewards and handed three penalty laps (the DTM’s equivalent of MotoGP’s long lap), but thinks the triple Macau GT winner was at fault.
"I was ahead of Maro before the corner - until he turned in. It's not like he was in the corner and I came from behind and completely torpedoed him,” said Rast, who also picked up a front-right puncture and dropped to 17th.
"He came from the outside, turned in. But you can't steer on cold tyres, you have no grip. He should have known that I had no grip.
“Why did he do it anyway [when his tyres were up to temperature]? No idea!"
"He ruined my race with it too,” he added in an interview with German broadcaster ran.de.
"I would have expected him to either brake earlier and drive through the corner behind me or simply open the brakes and drive the wide angle. But turning in like that when my tyres are [not] warm doesn't make much sense."
Engel disputed Rast’s claim and argued that his rival should have been more careful about his braking point on cold tyres.
"The pictures speak for themselves," he told Autosport's sister title Motorsport-Total.com.
"I think there was a lot of space on the inside when you hit the apex.
“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, slid into me with understeer and that was it."
Engel said he was fortunate to be able to continue the race after his half-spin, although he did end up losing a near-certain victory to the other Schubert BMW of van der Linde.
He had previously duelled with the South African during the opening stint of the race to assert himself as the clear leader at the Nurburgring.
“I didn't know if the car would stay intact. That was a hard blow," he said. "I was really lucky. The steering was still straight. The tyre pressures were right too. That was the luck we had."
Van der Linde scored his first win of the season to move up to fourth place in the championship, the 3.2s winning margin at the Nurburgring much less than the five seconds forfeited by Engel through his spin.
"I would have had difficulty catching him, to be fair. I don't want to win like that after what happened in turn 1," said van der Linde.
"I'm sure that wasn't intentional. It was unfortunate. It was also very slippery for me on the out lap on the new tyres."
Accident between @ReneRastRacing and @MaroEngel 🫣 @SheldonvdLinde is now leading the race.
— DTM (@DTM) August 18, 2024
Watch the last minutes live https://t.co/V2uEiERyXv#DTM2024 @nuerburgring pic.twitter.com/IdnCTVvAwJ
