– Retrospective penalty for McLaren driver Ben Dörr after the collision with Jules Gounon in the first lap of the DTM Saturday race in Oschersleben: The youngster, who suffered a rear right tire puncture due to the contact and retired, must now also accept a three-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race.
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“I trusted Ben to leave me space at the exit, because in DTM there’s a rule that you always have to leave space,” wonders Winward-Mercedes driver Gounon. “I don’t know what was going on with him. I’ll try to talk to him, but that wasn’t good.”
The “Mamba” driver fought against Dörr for fifth place after the start and was on the outside before contact occurred. Gounon was pushed off the track by Dörr and wildly ploughed through the grass, kicking up a lot of dust.
Dörr defends himself: “No chance to prevent anything”
Dörr, however, argues that he himself had no space. “I tried to defend myself at the entry to Turn 3,” he says. “I lost the rear a bit there. Then someone dived in on the inside and I was in a sandwich, so it was a stupid situation.”
He feels “very sorry for Jules – he was on the outside, and I think we touched.” But since he was also pressured from the other side, he “had no chance to prevent anything.” In fact, Grasser-Lamborghini driver Mirko Bortolotti took advantage of the duel and overtook both on the inside.
Why the stewards penalize Dörr
But why did the stewards still see Dörr as the culprit? The McLaren driver agreed with them that Gounon had done nothing wrong and apologized to the Winward-Mercedes driver for the collision during the hearing. In their opinion, Dörr could have handled the situation better and bears the main blame.
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Gounon immediately reported possible damage to the front left after the collision. During the race, he went off track several times and, according to the Winward team, had to retire early due to consequential damage from the collision: accordingly, the vibrations in the front suspension increased steadily during the race, and they did not want to take any risks.
Gounon struggles with qualifying: “A bit frustrating”
All of this is symbolic of his season, says Gounon. “It’s not going well,” says the Frenchman, who has to watch his brand colleagues Maro Engel and Lucas Auer fight for the title, while he is a distant twelfth in the standings after another retirement and has little chance left in the title race.
The further retirement is “a shame – but honestly, it was a shame that I didn’t drive a proper lap in qualifying this morning and had to start sixth,” Gounon blames the starting position for the unfortunate race. “The lap was poorly prepared due to some problems on the track,” he complains. “That’s a bit frustrating.”
An investigation was launched against Schubert-BMW driver Kelvin van der Linde after qualifying for impeding Gounon in Turn 10, but the German-South African was not penalized for it.
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