Hopes dashed: A failure cost Aston Martin a possible debut victory at the finale in Hockenheim – Why Magnus had to give up and what was really possible
Aston Martin caused a big surprise at the DTM finale in Hockenheim: After Gilles Magnus sensationally secured pole position in qualifying, the Belgian was also among the leaders for a long time in the last race of the year, until the bitter retirement came shortly before the second pit stop.
“Apparently, the inner kerb in the first corner damaged the suspension,” “It was only slight contact, but we believe that the ‘banana’ of the kerb damaged the suspension.”
“We’ll have to analyze it more closely, of course, but that’s what it looks like. It’s a real shame, because we must have driven over that kerb a hundred times since the first free practice session. Normally, it holds up, but this time it happened at the worst possible moment. That’s racing.“
Magnus had to retire his Aston Martin in a promising position, lying in second place. This not only dashed his dreams of a first podium finish, but possibly even his DTM debut victory. ”I would say a victory was definitely possible,“ believes Verbist. ”We were already dreaming a little bit about it.”
Güven slips past after the first stop
“Gilles was really strong, he did a great job,” praised his team boss. In fact, Magnus was able to convert his pole position into a lead at the start and confidently maintain it in the early stages. At one point, the Belgian was around two seconds ahead.
However, after the first pit stop, Güven took the lead. “We know that we always lose a little on the outlap after the stop, that’s quite clear when compared to the competition,” said Verbist, explaining the change in position in favor of the Manthey driver.
The outlap wasn’t the only problem, though: Magnus only lost 0.581 seconds to his rival here. But his in-lap was actually 0.783 seconds slower than Güven’s, who was already able to make up his deficit in this way. The Manthey stop itself was even slower than Comtoyou’s by 0.6 seconds. “I was really happy with the team’s performance during the pit stop,” emphasizes the team boss, who sees the out-lap in particular as a weak point. “Tire pressure is one factor, but it’s also something we need to understand better.”
Duel with Wittmann costs too much time
“We’re really strong at pit stops now, which is good, but we need to be more consistent. The pace in the stint is right, but the outlap is where we’re losing the most at the moment.” But that alone was not the reason why Güven took the lead.
When the Porsche driver returned to the track with cold tires after his stop, Magnus was unable to take advantage of his warmed-up tires because he had to defend himself against Marco Wittmann (Schubert-BMW), who was closing in fast.
The BMW driver had already pitted a few laps earlier and had already brought his tires up to temperature. Wittmann even passed Magnus at the hairpin for a moment, but the Aston Martin driver countered a few meters later in front of the Mercedes grandstand.
“The goal was to stay ahead of Wittmann,” says Verbist. “We watched the lap times, which were very strong right after the stop, so we reacted and stopped as well.” This achieved the goal, but the time lost in the duel was decisive: Güven was able to pull away at the front.
Would Magnus have had a chance in the end?
“We might have been able to make up for it at the second stop,” believes the Comtouyou team boss. In fact, Magnus was able to close the gap on the leading Güven again in the following laps and reduce the deficit to less than a second. That would have been enough to attempt an undercut at the second stop.
But that didn’t happen: around 15 minutes before the end, the Belgian had to retire his Aston Martin with a broken suspension. “Our realistic goal was the podium,” said Verbist. “After the first stop, we were in second place, and I think we had the pace to fight for the win.”
In addition, Güven struggled with his tires in the final stages of the race, which also enabled Marco Wittmann’s final attack. So it’s quite conceivable that Magnus could also have benefited from this situation. Aston Martin’s first DTM victory was within reach – but in the end, it remained just a dream.
