Aston Martin title contender Nicki Thiim was completely beside himself after finishing 11th in Saturday's DTM race at the Nurburgring - and lashed out at the series and at Mercedes-AMG. "I thought Oschersleben was bad, but this is absolutely next level. I'm super disappointed. What is going on here right now is simply a disgrace," the Dane raged.
Above all, the battle with Landgraf Mercedes driver Tom Kalender for ninth place and the penalty-lap sanction sent him over the edge. He said it was "ridiculous what is going on here. With Tom, it is clear to see what his job was: not to let me past at any cost!" he accused Mercedes-AMG of having instructed Kalender to help Thiim's brand colleagues Maro Engel and Lucas Auer, who are fighting for the title.
"That was absolutely clear on the first lap. Completely shoved into the dirt - exit of Turn 5," Thiim said, referring to the incident in which Luca Engstler slipped through. On the third lap, he then tried to overtake Kalender in the chicane.
"I'm already noticing how this works here in the DTM"
"And he moves completely across in the braking zone," even though in the DTM there is "the nice rule" that you can "trust each other. But yes, as I said: that was his absolute aim, not to let us past so he could help his lovely colleagues."
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But the first day of racing, with 11th on the grid and 11th place in the race, had also been frustrating in other respects. "It's simply incredible. As if I were fighting with a stick - and the others with a gun," he said. "Zero pace, zero chance. But I'm already noticing how this works here in the DTM," Thiim said, getting worked up again.
And he suggested that the different manufacturers in the DTM are not treated equally. "The other manufacturers get these glory moments - Norisring, Lausitzring. And then we get turned down completely," the halfway champion feels he has been unfairly treated by the Balance of Performance (BoP) after his two strong weekends.
Kalender on Thiim attack: "Then he still sends it in"
"And now Ferrari gets a moment here - and then it continues like this tomorrow. That's why it's difficult to take what is going on right now seriously, because there is no consistency in it. It is simply a disgrace."
In the overall standings, Thiim is now fourth, 30 points behind DTM leader Engel. But what does Engel's Mercedes-AMG colleague Kalender actually say about the controversial battle with the Dane?
"I think it was very obvious - I deliberately looked in the mirror," he said of the move on the third lap, when Thiim tried to go up the inside in the chicane from a long way back. "I drove down the straight and decided not to block, because it simply wasn't possible - and then he still sends it in."
Why Thiim received a penalty-lap sanction
"It's not the first time - in Oschersleben he already took me out once. It wasn't as consequential as now, but I honestly don't think it's very sporting," the 18-year-old said in clear terms.
Consequential because Kalender then came into the pits and parked his Landgraf Mercedes, as the exhaust tailpipe had been completely bent shut by the contact.
That was also why the matter was clear for race director Sven Stoppe: Thiim had hit Kalender's exhaust, positioned ahead of the rear wheel, with his right front, so he was nowhere near alongside - and received a penalty-lap sanction for forcing him off, equivalent to five seconds.
