VAN DER LINDE’S RIVALS
Without suffering a puncture apiece at Spa, there’s a case to be made that either one of Lucas Auer or Rene Rast could have been the 2022 DTM champion.
In race one, where eventual champion Sheldon van der Linde languished outside the points, Winward Mercedes driver Auer was running second behind Dennis Olsen’s Porsche when his front-left tyre gave up. That cost him a likely haul of 18 points, which would have given the Austrian the title by seven points.
Three-time champion Rast’s case is less strong. His Abt Audi was running third in race two – although a five-second penalty due to be added to his race time for earlier contact with Nick Cassidy means the position wasn’t assured – when his left-rear failed. Add the 15 points he might have scored and his seasonal tally is level with van der Linde’s, albeit with one win to the South African’s three.
Auer was also left to rue a wheelgun problem during his pitstop in the second Algarve race, which forced his retirement after running well early on, while Rast suffered an early puncture in the second Imola race and was turfed off by David Schumacher at the Nurburgring. He could have won the Hockenheim finale, but ran wide and lost out to BMW veteran Marco Wittmann.
Mirko Bortolotti’s biggest points hit came at the Nurburgring, but other factors also cost the Lamborghini man. He was denied victory in the Portimao opener by a misfire, had the pace to win at Imola without a grid penalty for using incorrectly allocated tyres in practice, and lost out badly to a slow pitstop in the Hockenheim opener.