Winward Mercedes driver Maro Engel prevailed against all three Porsches in the Hockenheim title decider. It still was not enough for the title: in the end he was 12 points short, because new champion Thomas Preining finished third. But especially in the early stages of the race, Preining's fellow Porsche drivers gave the Mercedes-AMG lone fighter a hard time.
"Looking ahead and looking in the mirror, I thought, am I in the wrong race? Am I in the Porsche Cup?" says the new DTM runner-up. "But these guys showed a very strong performance today and made my life very difficult."
The early phase in particular "was very tough", says Engel, who had expected nothing else. "I already got a foretaste of it at the Sachsenring. I was attacked very hard - with a lot of contact, pushed towards the wall and so on. But it was clear, I had to win the race."
Feller squeezes Engel: "I saw the wall very close"
In this case, his direct rivals were not title rival Preining, who had started from seventh, but pole-sitter Bastian Buus in the Land Porsche and Preining's Manthey team-mate Ricardo Feller, who started directly in front of him.
But Engel did not hang about even on the first lap and beat Feller on the straight before the Motodrom. "I saw the wall very close - very, very close," Engel says of the move, in which Feller gave him very little room. "Then I trusted that he wouldn't drive me completely into the wall. But of course I had to dive in."
Engel still went through with the move, even though the angle on entry to the Motodrom was very tight. "The mirror is only just still attached, I think."
Feller: "I wanted to stay out of the championship"
Feller himself, who let Preining past immediately afterwards, saw the situation in a more relaxed way. "Maro was pushing very hard. He had one goal: to win the race.
Also they had a lot of pace, so in the end I was not really in the position to fight him too much. He was clearly quicker."
But had Feller, who later was even asked by Preining to take second place, been deployed specifically against Engel? According to him, that was absolutely not in his interest: "I wanted to stay out of the championship - not to play any role to destroy anyone's race."
Engel now also had to get past Buus - but his race engineer radioed to him that this could also be resolved at the pit stop. To which Engel replied: "It has to be fair for everyone, because the rules are the rules."
Engel on Buus collision: "Turned in as if I wasn't there"
On lap 10, he then fought his way past the Land Porsche, but the Dane also did not make it easy for him in the Mercedes-Arena. "He turned in as if I hadn't been there," says Engel of the contact.
"I left even more room than yesterday. Nice that it was allowed today," he cannot resist a dig after the ordered position swap the day before.
"He had to go for the move," says Buus, who sees the situation differently from Engel. "In my opinion, a bit late on the brakes on the inside." Did he consider the move fair? "I don't know. This is up to the judges. I was nearly off track, so in the end there was not much I could have done differently."
Buus makes clear: "I had to drive my own race"
Buus, who finished fourth in the end, also makes clear that he was not driving for Preining. "I'm here to fight for victories. Championships will maybe come later, but today I had to drive my own race. Of course, we take a bit more care about each other within Porsche, as this is a family. But besides that, we're free to race."
Nevertheless, during Engel's overtaking move on Buus, Preining would have had the chance to get past the Winward Mercedes driver himself. "I just tried not to get mixed up and get collected or anything stupid to happen," the new champion explains of his restraint.
"So I lifted it and left them space to hit each other and run each other off the road as much as they want, as long as they don't touch me."
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