How could this happen? The decision by race control to call a Full Course Yellow shortly after Marco Mapelli, Ben Dorr, and Ricardo Feller entered the pit lane propelled the trio to the front - and robbed Nicki Thiim of his first Aston Martin victory in the DTM at the Lausitzring on Saturday. It brought back memories of Oschersleben 2024, when an unfortunate FCY phase moved Marco Wittmann from 17th to the lead and caused a stir.
This time, the trigger was Timo Glock, who parked his broken McLaren on the track, causing race director Sven Stoppe to call for 80 km/h across the entire circuit. As a result, the drivers in the pit lane lost hardly any time, as the speed limit in the pits is 60 km/h.
"Sven is normally really good at just waiting," says a puzzled Thiim. "I could understand it if the car was in the middle of the road and all the wheels were missing. But since the car just had problems, maybe they could have waited those few minutes until everyone was in, to make it fair."
Why did FCY come out while the trio was in the pit lane?
Pole-setter Thiim, whose brave gamble with slicks on a wet track had paid off, was on course for victory, leading Abt Lamborghini driver Mapelli by over five seconds before the mandatory stop. But while the Comtoyou driver carried out his stop under normal conditions, the trio benefited significantly, leaving the Italian around 23 seconds ahead of the Dane, who dropped to fourth place after his stop.
Race director Stoppe had waited until the three drivers crossed the first Safety Car line before the long pit entry, which meant the mandatory stop counted. However, he would also have had to wait until the trio left the pit lane again to prevent a distortion of the race.
"I had already received the call to come into the pits on this lap before the Full Course Yellow call came," Mapelli clarifies, stating that Abt did not react to the Glock car. "We managed to cross the Safety Car line before the countdown was at zero."
"Thought we had discussed there would be no FCY"
The McLaren team of Ben Dorr, who later took the win due to the penalty for Marco Mapelli, reacted to his teammate's misfortune - and he made it across the crucial Safety Car line just in time. If the FCY had already been in effect before the trio headed for the pits, positions would have been frozen - and the race would not have been affected.
The Dane takes it like a sportsman. "I respect Sven, I respect the ladies and gentlemen who do the work out there for us to safely dispose of the car," says Thiim. In this case, he says he is "the victim - and that is why I am complaining right now."
But Maro Engel was also not exactly happy with the decision. "I thought we had discussed that we would no longer do Full Course Yellow during the pit stop window. At least not in such a way that cars can benefit from it. But there it was just different. Congratulations to those who got it right."
Did the dangerous situation leave the race director with no other choice? "From my point of view, we have had Local Yellow in the past. That also worked - and in my view, that would have been enough," Engel says.
Beneficiaries defend the race control decision
The three beneficiaries of the unfortunate decision see things somewhat differently. "I think it's the marshal's decision. At the end, they did the same in Zandvoort for the board and dirt on track. And they did this time with the car stopped out of the corner. So I think they make the same decision every time. We need to keep this in mind," says Mapelli.
This is only partially true, as in the Sunday race at Zandvoort, Stoppe only sent the Safety Car onto the track due to parts of a polystyrene board lying on the track once all drivers had completed their first mandatory stop.
Ben Dorr and Ricardo Feller, however, share Mapelli's view. "I think they know what they do upstairs - and I don't want to do their job", says the Swiss driver, showing understanding for the FCY decision. "For sure, they had a reason to bring it out. And sometimes in racing, you are a bit lucky and sometimes you're not. You cannot always make it right and fair for everyone. In the end, it's a safety thing. And I fully understand that they put Full Course Yellow."
