Manthey EMA driver Preining claimed his first victory of the 2023 season in Sunday’s second race at the Norisring after passing polesitter Rast for the lead with a “hard and opportunistic move” on lap 44 of 74.
Having already cleared Rast’s Schubert team-mate Sheldon van der Linde a few laps earlier, Preining made another pass at the tricky Turn 1 hairpin, sending his Porsche up the inside of Rast into the left-hander.
Preining had to ride the inside kerb due to a lack of space and the two drivers made minor contact as they exited the corner, but the Austrian driver was able to complete the move and win the race by over two seconds.
Rast made his displeasure clear immediately over the team radio, saying “he forced his way, he has to give back the position.”
A piece of bodywork was also seen flapping from his BMW which, combined with 10kg of success ballast from his second-position finish in Race 1, meant that he wasn’t able to mount a counterattack on his Porsche rival.
Speaking after the race, Rast said he was surprised by Preining’s late pass and felt they were both lucky to continue the race without heavy damage.
“When I was in the corner, I was actually surprised that all of a sudden, almost at the exit of the corner, I had some contact very late,” he said.
“It was a very hard, opportunistic move. Luckily, nobody got injured or damaged so heavily that [they] had to retire.
“It was very late. I was already committing to the apex of the corner. I was in the corner and got hit from the left-hand side.
“I was surprised, I couldn't really see him coming. Obviously, when you turn into the corner you focus on the apex and not on the rear-view mirror anymore.”
Rast also felt Preining’s move violated DTM’s rules regarding wheel-to-wheel racing, revealing such overtakes had been discussed in the drivers’ briefing.
“The rules basically say that you have to be half a car length next to the car in front before turning in and then the car in front has to give you the space,” he explained.
“But obviously I was already committing to the apex when he was fully behind me. So that's definitely different to what we agreed in the drivers briefing.”
While Preining was not yet next to the centre line of the BMW at the time of the turn-in, as required by Article 30.3.3 of the regulations, DTM race director Sven Stoppe decided not to penalise the Austrian driver.
This had to do with the fact that Rast turned in earlier than usual in order to close the door on Preining.
“What counts is not the turn-in point that the driver just chooses at that moment, but the one that the drivers usually use at that point,“ Stoppe told Autosport’s sister site Motorsport-Total.com.
Source: Autosport