Ricardo Feller had to serve three penalty laps for colliding with Jack Aitken, who lost the DTM lead: Why the Audi driver disagrees
On Saturday, Jack Aitken and Ricardo Feller were still battling for victory – and the Emil Frey Ferrari driver took the lead in the DTM. On Sunday, the Land Audi driver crashed into the rear of Aitken while fighting for 13th place, causing him to spin into an advertising barrier. Aitken fell back to the end of the field and finished 16th, losing the DTM lead, while the Land Audi driver received three penalty laps and finished 20th.
“Sorry, that wasn’t intentional!” and “That was stupid!” Feller immediately apologized to his crew over the radio. Nevertheless, he disagrees with the penalty after the race. “I thought the three penalty laps were very harsh. And I found it very strange how quickly they came. It felt like they came in one lap.”
The Land Audi driver would have liked a more thorough investigation. “At first glance, it might look like I drove into him and took him out. But you could take a few laps to look at it properly and discuss it.“
”I already had my nose in, then he pulled over again.“
He didn’t want to ”tell anyone how to do their job, but from the cockpit, that’s how it looked.” How did the incident unfold from Feller’s point of view? “It wasn’t planned to turn him away at all,” he explains. “I was on the outside, trying to cut in to get to the inside. In Turn 3, I already had my nose in and then he pulls over again and turns away.”
Feller sought a conversation with Aitken immediately after the race. “We just talked it over, and from a driver’s point of view, we would classify it as a racing accident,” he clarifies, indicating that he is in agreement with the Emil Frey driver.
“Yes, it was a pretty harsh penalty,” he said of the penalty. “In the end, it ruined my race. We’ve already spoken and I don’t think it was intentional, but in the end it cost me a few points, so it’s difficult to say.”
Aitken: “Not okay to hit someone”
How did he experience the incident from the Ferrari cockpit? “I think he wanted to make the cutback and I wanted to defend myself, thinking I was already there,” he describes how the contact occurred. “He came into the back corner at high speed.”
Aitken does not believe that his defense was “too late.” “We were still in the corner. He could have lifted off. Maybe I could have seen him a little earlier. But I would still say that it’s not okay to just hit someone.”
The Emil Frey Ferrari driver, who is now eight points behind DTM leader Lucas Auer in second place overall, finished 16th in the race, narrowly missing out on the points. Feller only managed to finish in 20th place.
Why did race director Sven Stoppe impose such a harsh penalty so quickly after the incident? It was probably because the situation was clear to him – and Feller also apologized via radio. Apart from that, Aitken’s race was ruined by the incident, which resulted in the severe penalty.
