Maro Engel’s recovery drive in Sunday’s DTM race at the Norisring suffered a setback after a pit lane misunderstanding involving a Mercedes-AMG sister team.
The Winward Racing driver had started from 12th and worked his way forward in tricky conditions, but his second mandatory pit stop became costly when Tom Kalender’s Landgraf Motorsport Mercedes-AMG entered the pit lane at the same time and blocked Engel’s path.
Engel eventually finished seventh, leaving the Norisring second in the championship standings, nine points behind race winner Nicki Thiim at the halfway stage of the season.
Frustration for Engel after sister team blocks pit exit at DTM Race 2 at the Norisring
Engel had shown strong pace on wet tyres and looked set to continue his charge through the field before the issue at his second stop. Although his crew completed the tyre change quickly, Engel had to wait before rejoining the fast lane to avoid the risk of an unsafe release.
Speaking to ran.de, Engel said the incident came as a frustration after a promising recovery.
“On the rain tyres, I was able to make up places well and slowly work my way forward, then unfortunately there was the mishap during the pit stop. The sister team came in. It had actually been agreed that this would not happen. We need to analyse that afterwards. I think we did everything right from my team’s side.”
Mercedes-AMG explains Kalender timing issue
Mercedes-AMG later blamed a misunderstanding around Kalender’s planned stop. Landgraf had originally scheduled the young driver to come in one lap earlier, but the team delayed the stop because it was unsure whether the pit window had opened.
“In the end, it was a misunderstanding. Tom [Kalender] was actually supposed to come in at the end of lap 40 because he was a little further back. The youngster’s stop was actually set, but then it was a little too tight for the engineer — and he did not want to take any risk that the pit stop window was not open yet.”
Thomas Jäger, Sporting Director of the DTM division at Mercedes-AMG, explained to Motorsport-Total.com that Landgraf had initially planned Kalender’s stop, but the team decided against taking the risk. The decision delayed Kalender’s stop by one lap and brought him into the pit lane at the same time as Engel. Jäger said the Landgraf Mercedes-AMG driver’s pit stop therefore “slipped into the next lap”.
Engel may have lost the chance to fight forward further
The delay did not change Engel’s official position immediately, as he ran seventh before and after the pit stop phase. However, the lost time may have prevented him from attacking the group ahead in the closing stages. Jäger told Motorsport-Total.com that such a situation can quickly become costly in a tightly packed field.
“When the field is very close together, that can cost a massive number of positions. Maro [Engel] was seventh before and after. He was perhaps denied the chance to still move further forward.”
Engel also admitted the incident may have cost him the opportunity to gain more ground, although he accepted it as part of racing.
“I don’t know how much it made up, maybe two places. But that’s sport: wipe your mouth and move on!”
