After a serious crash at Hockenheim: Luca Engstler’s DTM season is over

Following his heavy crash in the first DTM race at the Hockenheimring, Luca Engstler’s ABT Sportsline Lamborghini Temerario GT3 was so badly damaged that the Allgäu-based driver will be unable to line up on the grid on Sunday. As a result, only 20 cars will line up for the final race of the season.

On the second lap, Engstler made contact with Lucas Auer in a fierce battle for the lead in front of the East Stand and subsequently crashed heavily into the barrier. “The chassis, gearbox and parts of the engine are broken, which is why the damage is beyond repair and the car is no longer roadworthy,” Abt team principal Thomas Biermaier told Motorsport-Magazin.com. “Thank God, and fortunately – and this is the most important thing – Luca is fine.”

Biermaier continued: “The data from the crash confirms what we feared: At the point of contact with Lucas Auer, the speed was 210 km/h; when he spun, it was still 190 km/h; and because the engine cut out at that point, we can no longer quantify the impact speed due to the lack of data.”

Whether the Lamborghini is repairable or whether the team from Kempten needs a new chassis will only become clear once they’re back in the team workshop, as Biermaier explained: “Back at the garage, we’ll completely dismantle the chassis and then decide whether it can be repaired or needs replacing. It’s very bitter when a good weekend ends like this. It’s a shame, because otherwise we would probably have gone into the winter break feeling positive.”

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A stuttering start to the Bahrain Grand Prix: the FIA narrowly avoids a fiasco like the one in Indianapolis in 2005

Fans could hardly believe their eyes at what they witnessed at the Bahrain Grand Prix: cars crawling along, racing cars that simply came to a standstill. The FIA narrowly avoided a fiasco like the one at Indy in 2005.

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