Nicki Thiim calls it a “huge mistake,” while Lucas Auer is unusually sarcastic: How a tank slapper by the Aston Martin driver ruined both races
What bad luck for runner-up Lucas Auer, who had taken the DTM lead with a second-place finish on Saturday: The Landgraf-Mercedes driver overtook Nicki Thiim on Sunday in Zandvoort (race report) during the restart following the safety car phase and was already in seventh place when the Comtoyou Aston Martin driver sent him spinning, causing him to drop to the back of the field.
“A really big move,” “Important for both of us—definitely. Now we’ve ended up second-to-last and last. There’s nothing to say; after that, it was a wasted day.”
The sarcasm reflects the mood of the otherwise usually good-humored Mercedes-AMG driver: In the end, he managed to finish 13th and score three points, while Thiim finished 18th. He had to drive through the penalty zone three times, which amounts to a 15-second penalty.
“Got a huge tank slapper”: Thiim explains the mishap
Race director Sven Stoppe didn’t even refer the case to the stewards—that’s how clear-cut the matter was to him. “I’m disappointed in myself; I made a huge mistake at the restart,” the Dane notes, pointing out that he went into the gravel before the final corner.
This allowed Ben Dörr to pass—and Auer also seized his chance. Once Dörr had passed, Thiim says he “got a massive tank-slapper in the first corner. That caused me to hit Lucas, which I’m obviously sorry about. The front of the car was damaged—and that was the end of the race.”
His car had been damaged at the front, and the three penalty laps did the rest. “I deserved those, of course,” Thiim clarifies. What is a tank-slapper? It’s an English term that Thiim presumably uses to mean that he nearly lost control of his Vantage himself, had to correct it, and thereby slid into Auer’s car.
Auer after the discussion: “He probably had pickup on the tires”
After the race, a discussion took place between the visibly annoyed Auer and the “Viking,” who took responsibility for the mishap. “He went wide at the restart. Then he probably had a lot of pickup on his tires,” Auer believes after speaking with Thiim that the latter’s tires were contaminated with rubber debris. “It can happen. It sucks for both of us. That’s the worst-case scenario for him and for me, but that’s part of racing.”
Auer, who secured two second-place finishes and one third-place finish in the first three races of the season, sits in second place in the overall standings behind his Winward teammate Maro Engel following his unfortunate Sunday in the Netherlands.
Now the action moves to the Lausitzring, where Auer claimed his first of eleven DTM victories to date in 2016. “It’s always something special for me to return there,” he says, looking forward to the upcoming DTM weekend with optimism. After all, the runner-up is widely regarded as a Lausitzring specialist.
“It’s a very good track for me—and I’m really looking forward to it,” he says. Thiim is in ninth place in the overall standings after finishing ninth on Saturday.