“Absolute nonsense”: calendar responds to Thiim accusation – and even thanks him

– Mercedes-AMG junior Tom Kalender was one of the surprises in the second DTM race at the Nürburgring: The 18-year-old missed his first race win on Sunday by just 0.517 seconds – not least thanks to Nicki Thiim, who had launched a verbal attack against Kalender on Saturday.

Read more IndyCar Markham 2026: Mick Schumacher retires after accident

Because in the first race, Kalender and Thiim (Comtoyou-Aston-Martin) had already clashed after just a few laps. The Dane then accused Mercedes-AMG of having instructed the youngster to hold up Thiim and thus help his brand colleagues Maro Engel and Lucas Auer, who were fighting for the title.

“That is absolute nonsense,” Kalender now responds in an interview with Motorsport-Total.com. “But I have to say, I have always gotten along very well with Nicki. He is actually a very fair driver, so that was not our intention at all.”

“Of course, I want to get ahead of him, and he wants to get ahead of me,” adds the Mercedes-AMG junior. “But honestly, what he did yesterday and then insisting on his right and even accusing me in the interviews, I found that a bit over the top, but I am sure it will settle down again.”

Thiim attack helps Kalender to first DTM podium

Curiously: It was precisely Thiim’s attack, which led to Kalender’s early retirement, that helped the 18-year-old to his first DTM podium just one day later. Because the Landgraf driver was able to save a fresh set of tires on Saturday, he was hardly stoppable in the final phase of Sunday’s race.

“That obviously worked in our favor, we had a bit of luck in misfortune after the incident yesterday with Nicki in the chicane,” Kalender chuckles in hindsight about the rough attack by the Aston Martin driver, who was found guilty and had to drive through the penalty lap once in Saturday’s race.

“Yesterday’s bad luck was ultimately the performance advantage towards the end for today,” confirms Thomas Jäger, who acts as Sporting Director for the DTM area at Mercedes-AMG, in an interview with Motorsport-Total.com. “And you really have to say, he did an excellent job.”

He “withstood the pressure without mistakes” and overtook “super fairly” and “without using force,” praises Jäger. “So you really have to say: hats off, that was really a great performance. I am really very happy for him because we have had it before that he was in a promising position and then retired or was hit.”

Read more Honda announces timeline for return to the top of Formula 1

AMG youngster Kalender calls it an “absolute surprise”

How exactly it came about on Sunday that Kalender was allowed to climb onto the DTM podium for the first time in his career? “We had a chaotic start,” the AMG driver recalls the accident between Maro Engel and Lucas Auer, right in the Mercedes Arena. “But I just got through.”

“From there, I really drove a good race,” Kalender is pleased, who started from eleventh place and, looking at his second place behind race winner Marco Wittmann, therefore speaks of an “absolute surprise” that one had “of course not expected” before.

“The pace was amazing, we ran a good strategy, with good pit stops, so thanks also to the whole team, they were really amazing today,” praises Kalender. In the first stint, the Landgraf driver used the race tires from the previous day, in the second stint the tires from the second qualifying on Sunday.

In the third and final stint, the 18-year-old then had the brand-new tires available. “But still, I also believe that on the old tires our pace was really great, it’s not just due to the tires,” the AMG youngster does not want to attribute his podium debut solely to the tire advantage.

Tom Kalender: “You are allowed to be lucky sometimes”

In addition, Kalender also benefited from the safety car after Ben Dörr’s retirement, which brought him closer to the leading group and made the jump to the podium even easier. “But I just think, you are allowed to be lucky sometimes, especially after the bad luck we had, with six retirements this season.”

“We did a good job in qualifying,” says Kalender, even though everything could still be brought together a bit better there. “But mentally I was absolutely free today. The team did an amazing job, everything just went well today.”

“He really deserved it in every respect, I am really very happy for him personally,” says Thomas Jäger, while Kalender even had the first win in sight: Just a few more laps, and the 18-year-old could have even become dangerous to race winner Marco Wittmann with his fresh tires …

Read more Formula E London 2: Pascal Wehrlein is World Champion after chaotic finale