Lawson blames slow pit stop that cost DTM the lead in the race

[ad_1]

Lawson had taken the lead on lap one with a daring pass over poleman Philip Ellis in the sequence for Turn 2-3 and was several seconds ahead of the road when he hit the pit lane on lap 8 of 36 .

Pit stops have so far been the highlight of the AF Corse team leading Operation Red Bull, playing a vital role in Lawsons’ victory in the first race of the DTM GT3 era at Monza on last month.

But this time, after a relatively late stop, Lawson stalled his Ferrari out of the pits, losing several seconds before managing to restart.

This means he emerged behind Abt Sportsline driver Kelvin van der Linde as he exited the pits, with HRT Maximilian Gotz taking advantage of his cold tires to downshift him to third place.

He eventually finished the race in second, helped by technical problems for van der Lindes Audi.

Lawson said he couldn’t be certain he would have won the race had it not been for the slow pit stop, citing the pace of Gotzs Mercedes, who finished five seconds later but felt he would at least have come out. stands in the lead.

We obviously boxed a lap later than Kelvin and we’re sticking to the overcut and staying ahead, said Lawson, who also competes in Formula 2 this season.

In the box we had a slightly slower shutdown, slower than normal. Obviously our team is really up to speed with our pit stops, which is certainly one of our main strengths this year.

But we had a slight problem and I was obviously sitting there, waiting to go, waiting to release the clutch. And just as the car fell, I thought I was out early, and I think that’s why we stalled the car.

I think [my teammate] Alexis [Albon] had a similar problem, so we have to look at it. Maybe we both did the same thing or there is another problem.

Liam Lawson, AF Corsica

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

But on my side, I think it was my fault, so sorry for the team, because it definitely cost us the lead. I can’t say if I would have stayed there for the rest of the race or not, but it certainly wasn’t ideal for this part.

Lawson surpassed expectations in his first season of sports car racing, with only one collision with Esteban Muth’s Lamborghini in Monza’s second race preventing him from scoring a streak of podiums in the first two rounds of the DTM season.

The Red Bull protégé sits second in the championship ahead of round three at Zolder next month, just four points behind van der Linde’s Audi.

Lawson said he could be happy with his points accumulated at the Lausitzring, even though a slow pit stop left him second behind Gotz on Sunday.

It has been a very positive start to the season, said the 19-year-old. Obviously there are little things to work on, what we had in the pitlane today is one of them.

Obviously in Monza the spinning issue is also something we need to fix. But it was a positive start for sure. Hopefully we can continue.

I think right now, with the BoP changes and things like that, it’s going to be really high and low but eventually it’s going to start to even out and start to see more consistent guys start to stay at the top, but so far it’s been good.

Considering the weight we had in the car, [it was] good for points, and it must be pretty close between me and Kelvin now. So on that side, it’s a good thing for the points.

[ad_2]