Liam Lawson was on pole position and appeared to be virtually assured of the world title in the final race of the DTM season. In the opening round, however, the Red Bull junior fell far back after a big hit from Kelvin van der Linde. The South African caused so much damage to Lawson’s Ferrari that he eventually lost the title. Helmut Marko is furious, he says so Motorsport Total clearly mark.
“This was a completely mindless action by Van der Linde, and this was certainly not the first time,” the Red Bull advisor told the German sports medium. “He also crashed with Liam in Hockenheim. For me, this is extremely unsportsmanlike behaviour, and I think this should be punished appropriately.”
Marko also criticizes the race management. According to the man from Graz, the penalty that was handed out, a time penalty of five seconds, is far too low. “Such a man should be immediately suspended. In Formula 1 he would automatically receive so many points in the penalty points system that he would have to miss a race right away.”
Lawson suffered significant damage from the tap from Van der Linde. The New Zealander fell outside the points, but still had a big lead in the standings. Nevertheless, Maximilian Gotz was able to close a gap of no less than 19 World Cup points, making the German driver, to everyone’s surprise, champion. Lawson called Van der Linde the “dirtiest driver ever” he had driven.
“And he said that just right,” responds Marko, who suspects the collision was intentional. The Red Bull advisor therefore looks very critically at the race management, which, in his opinion, handed out a much too low penalty. “If that wasn’t on purpose, then I don’t know what is. If the race management didn’t see that, then they are not qualified enough to participate in such a championship.”
Watch the footage of the crash between Lawson and Van der Linde below.
–
