Eriksson Penalized for Macau Contact; Heinrich Keeps Podium

Audi driver Joel Eriksson has been penalized for the first-lap FIA GT World Cup contact that left Ayhancan Guven in the barriers at Lisboa, with third-place finisher Laurin Heinrich being exonerated by the stewards.

Sunday’s Main Race on the streets of Macau featured the typical chaotic scenes at the tight Lisboa right-hander, as light contact between Guven and his Schumacher CLRT Porsche teammate Heinrich put the DTM champion in the barriers.

Both Lamborghini’s Luca Engstler and another Porsche driver, Dorian Boccolacci, were caught out in the resulting pileup, leaving all three drivers out of the race.

However, both Heinrich and Eriksson were placed under investigation for causing the incident, with Eriksson’s No. 46 Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom car having run directly behind Heinrich in the run-up to the incident.

Eriksson denied having made contact with Heinrich speaking to Sportscar365, but based on CCTV and fan footage, the stewards held the Swedish driver “wholly responsible” for the contact and handed him a ten-second time penalty.

That dropped Eriksson to fifth in the final classification behind the Harmony Racing Ferrari of Yifei Ye.

Speaking in the post-race press conference, Heinrich said he “felt bad” for Guven, who could have otherwise scored a podium finish on his Macau debut.

“I was side-by-side with the Audi [Eriksson] exiting Turn 1 and he squeezed me towards the wall, so I touched the wall on the right and the Audi on the left,” recalled Heinrich. “I was not sure in Mandarin if the car was ok but in the end you have to go for it.

“I had a great run through Mandarin and I saw my teammate Ayhancan was also on the right, making up spots, and I came with huge overspeed. I had to lift the throttle to avoid bump-drafting him too hard!

“I gave him a small bump that put his nose ahead of the others coming to the braking point. Both of us made a clear plan before the race to work together there and we were in the best position for the inside of Turn 3 [Lisboa].

“During braking I was unfortunately hit from behind and I locked the rear axle. I had to push the brake pedal as hard as I could, and unfortunately I was pushed into my teammate and he ended up in the wall, which was very unfortunate.

“Despite finishing on the podium for the first time I feel quite bad also for him, because he would have deserved it as much as I do.

“I hope he will get over it and I hope one day he will come back here and also have great success.”