Preining “Extremely Disappointed” Losing Victory

Thomas Preining was left frustrated by a late penalty that cost him victory in the Sunday DTM race at Oschersleben, questioning why he didn’t receive it at an earlier stage in the race.

Preining looked on course for a lights-to-flag victory in the second race of the season on Sunday afternoon when he was given a pitstop infringement penalty late in the race.

Article 39.1 of the sporting regulations state that “the rear wheels to be mounted must be actively held” by mechanics.

A clarification to the regulations, issued on Saturday evening and supplied to Sportscar365, noted that the rear wheels may not be put down and must be held by muscle power as soon as the team enters the working lane and until the car comes to a stop at the pit box.

A replay of Preining’s stop on the official DTM broadcast showed the left rear wheel partially resting on the ground before the No. 91 Porsche 911 GT3 R entered the box.

The resulting trip through the penalty zone saw him drop the lead to Toksport WRT driver Christian Engelhart, slotting into third place behind Engelhart’s teammate Tim Heinemann.

The Austrian questioned the timing of the penalty, pointing out that there was a gap of over twenty minutes between the stop where the infringement took place and the punishment being announced.

“Obviously I’m extremely disappointed,” said Preining.

“I’m happy that if I don’t win, at least Christian does. We’re friends since a long time. Good job from them.

“I don’t have too much to say about the penalty to be honest. I still don’t fully know what went wrong.

“I’m a bit disappointed the penalty wasn’t spoken out earlier, before the second safety car.

“It was already after the pitstops and it was already clear that something went wrong.

“If I would have done the penalty lap then, I would have kept the lead. In the end, could have, should have, would have.

“Triple unlucky, so of course it’s not the easiest of moments but we will come back pushing, fighting for more podiums and wins, points and keep going in the right direction.”

Preining’s podium finish was a significant improvement over the 11th-place finish he recorded on Saturday.

He explained that he put effort into improving his qualifying performance going into Sunday, which would give him the upper hand in the race.

“I think it was a lot of things,” Preining said.

“Over the weekend we managed to improve a lot of areas on the car. On myself as well.

“I made some steps since yesterday, especially in qualifying. Tire preparation and driving style.

“This gave us the pole position. If you start from the front and you can control the pace and don’t have to drive in dirty air, it makes things a lot easier.

“Of course the pace was good but also the color of the car makes it look fast.”

Engelhart: Oschersleben ‘Suits Porsche Well’

Porsche enjoyed a dominant afternoon at the Saxony circuit, sweeping the podium and locking out the top four.

The result came after it already secured a one-two in qualifying earlier on Sunday with Preining and Heinemann.

Engelhart hinted that the layout of the 3.696 km circuit was an advantageous one for Porsche machinery.

“In my opinion, Oschersleben has always suited the car really well,” said the German.

“Already with the Type-991, it was a very good track. We also put a lot of effort into it.

“We were testing here, not only once but two times and then came to the official test here on Thursday.

“So we put a lot of preparation into this weekend and I think there was already a lot of knowledge before we came here.

“But after yesterday, honestly, I didn’t expect something like today. We did a lot of things right today.”