– Wild scenes in the opening phase of the DTM Saturday race at the Sachsenring (race report): After the turbulent start, numerous drivers collided – and there was a chain reaction in the field. First, Abt-Lamborghini driver Marco Mapelli hit Land-Porsche youngster Bastian Buus on the left rear wheel, causing him to slide into the gravel trap.
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This caused Mapelli’s Temerario to lose balance, spin to the left, and hit his Abt teammate Luca Engstler, who started to skid and collided with Mapelli again.
“Big chaos in front of me,” says Engstler to ran.de after the early retirement. After a good start, “there was a touch in front of me – lots of dust, then I was on the inside. Then a car spun in front of me, hit me, and I was just a passenger,” Engstler describes the scenes.
Why the race stewards blame Mapelli
The first hit probably came from Mapelli. “But I don’t want to say anything wrong because he was somehow also involved with Buus,” says Engstler. Land team boss Christian Land also clarifies that Buus “got two hits from the ‘Lambo’ with number ten.”
This refers to Mapelli. “Basti opened the door – and was hit hard,” adds Land. The race stewards also saw the Italian as the culprit and penalized him with a three-place grid drop for the Sunday race. They saw Mapelli as solely responsible.
At the hearing, Mapelli reportedly argued, according to the stewards’ report, that Buus initially took a wide line and then did not leave him enough space. As a result, Mapelli had to go into the gravel and then had dirty tires. Buus argued the opposite, saying he left enough space and was pushed off.
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He was able to continue the race, but the Land team communicated that they were “forced to retire the car halfway through.”
Chaos causes team collision between Glock and Dörr
Interestingly, the chain reaction caused further victims: Timo Glock collided with his teammate Ben Dörr, which also damaged his car. “In corners four and five, two cars spun in front of me,” says Glock. “Luca Engstler crossed in front of me. I was able to avoid him. Then I had a touch with Ben, where a splitter of the car broke off.”
Afterwards, Glock had to retire his McLaren 720S GT3 Evo. “The damage was just too big,” he says. “I tried to stay out of everything, but unfortunately there was the contact.”
Grasser-Lamborghini driver Maximilian Paul, who was also involved, retired in his comeback race after halfway. Especially the right front was badly damaged. “Not the race we wished for today,” he writes on Instagram. “I couldn’t prevent the contact at the start.”
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Also, the HRT-Ford of Finn Wiebelhaus, the Landgraf-Mercedes of Lucas Auer, and the Seyffarth-Audi of guest starter Simon Connor Primm received some serious scrapes. However, all cars can be repaired according to the current status and should be back in action on Sunday.
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