Kelvin van der Linde and ABT Sportsline kept their word and fought for the DTM drivers’ title until the very end. In a dramatic finale at the Norisring, the title dreams only burst shortly before the end of the last race of the season with the left rear tyre of Kelvin van der Linde’s ABT Audi R8 LMS.
It was preceded by two intense days of racing on the DTM’s only city street circuit. Free practice on Friday already indicated that the two Ferraris of the Red Bull AlphaTauri AF Corse team would also have a clear advantage at the Norisring. The only one who could threaten championship leader Liam Lawson in qualifying was Kelvin van der Linde, who secured second place on the grid for both races. In the first qualifying session, however, he was almost two tenths of a second off the pace – a small world on the Norisring, which is only 2.3 kilometres short.
Accordingly, Kelvin van der Linde had to take a lot of risks in both races. The South African put all his eggs in one basket and attacked Liam Lawson in the first corner – both times with consequences.
On Saturday, the ABT driver braked a little too late, was carried far to the outside in turn one and dropped back to seventh place. Also thanks to a clever strategy, the South African was able to move up to fourth and finish one place behind Liam Lawson. The title decision was thus postponed until Sunday.
In the second qualifying session, only 41 thousandths of a second were missing for pole position. Again, van der Linde tried to attack the championship leader on the better inside line. Because he pushed Liam Lawson wide in turn one, he had to serve a 5-second time penalty during the pit stop.
Despite the time penalty, van der Linde returned to the track after his pit stop ahead of the eventual winner and champion Maxi Götz in the Mercedes. This would have put him ahead of Götz in the championship. Attempting to resist of being passed on cold tyres, the two title contenders touched at the exit of the Dutzendteich corner, which deflated the left rear tyre on the ABT Audi R8 LMS and finally shattered the title dreams.
Team-mate Mike Rockenfeller also suffered a puncture shortly after the start on Saturday and retired from the race. On Sunday, in his last DTM race for Audi, “Rocky” just missed the podium in fourth place. The entire team wore caps with the words “Thank you Rocky” on the starting grid.
Lucas di Grassi showed how quickly he learns in his second outing in the DTM. The Brazilian managed to match the pace of his teammates and could have scored top ten results in both races. On Saturday, his crew delayed the compulsory pit stop too long, which is why di Grassi was retroactively demoted to 15th place. On Sunday, the Formula E star spun after a contact with Mike Rockenfeller in the frantic start phase. Although he did not find reverse gear straight away, di Grassi still finished twelfth.
