Paul speaks for the first time about horror crash: “Could no longer press the brake”

– Maximilian Paul, who is starting this weekend as a test for his DTM comeback at the Sachsenring in the Italian GT Championship in Imola, speaks for the first time about the horror crash during the Saturday race at the Norisring two months ago. But how did the Grasser Lamborghini driver, who broke his shin and calf bones as well as a lumbar vertebra in the crash, experience the drama?

Read more Formula 2 unveils new 2027 car with Formula 1 look and on-board starter

“I reached the end of the straight – and when I braked, I immediately slipped. At that moment, I also knew it was oil because nothing else slips that extremely,” the 26-year-old refers in the new DTM docuseries Behind the Grid to the oil trail, which apparently came from Timo Glock’s Dörr McLaren. “There were three pretty hard impacts.”

Paul believes that the injury to his left foot came from the impact with the wall. “After the first one, I already felt like I had broken my leg because after that I couldn’t press the brake properly anymore,” says the Dresden native.

“From then on, I felt a pain in my back”

“And yes – then every impact was basically just a hope for little pain. And the last one was also relatively hard, where I then broke my vertebra because from then on I felt a pain in my back.”

After the three impacts – the first into the wall, the second into Kelvin van der Linde’s Schubert BMW, and the third into the tire stack – Paul said that his “shin and calf bones were completely broken – and the L1 vertebra also broke straight through once.”

Immediately after the last impact, it took “ten to fifteen minutes” until he received support. “Then someone was already there – and I told them: ‘Hey, help me get out of the car.’ They then helped me – I think two of them or so – to lift me out.”

Paul during rescue: “I just want to lie on the ground”

According to his memory, Paul took off his helmet still in the car. “And then I said: I just want to lie on the ground so that the leg doesn’t hang around or I accidentally step on it. And in the ambulance, I was given a dose of painkillers, then everything was easy at first.”

Read more Dishes or Art: Monza Trophies Attract Attention

The Grasser team initially did not know how Paul was doing because the radio did not work after the accident – presumably due to damage to the vehicle. In addition, Paul did not have his phone with him in the hospital. After the operation, Paul was discharged from the clinic in Nuremberg the following Friday and quickly began rehabilitation.

How it came about that Paul lived with his physiotherapist

Already on Sunday, Paul and his physiotherapist Sven Helferich discussed the procedure. “Then he came, and then the topic of the hotel came up. And then I hesitantly said: ‘What do you think about living with me?'” Helferich recalls the conversation.

Episode 2 of the DTM docuseries “Behind the Grid”

Paul actually moved in with him temporarily for the recovery period – for him a reason why the healing process has been so successful so far. Otherwise, “my healing process would probably take four times as long,” says Paul, who is back in the race car for the first time 50 days after the accident at the DTM test at the Sachsenring.

Physiotherapist Helferich is also amazed: “I have no idea what’s wrong with him. Maybe he should be examined. But I have never seen such a healing process in an athlete or person as with him. Sometimes you really have to slow him down a bit.”

Whether Paul will make his racing comeback in the Grasser Lamborghini at the Sachsenring in a week has not yet been officially confirmed. Team boss Gottfried Grasser already said after the Sachsenring test, where Paul completed 98 laps, that he will drive “with 99.9 percent certainty” (SPONSORED LINK: Get tickets for the 2026 DTM season now!).

Read more Points leader Zulauf with first pole in chaotic qualifying at Salzburgring