Scherer Sport PHX’s Audi took provisional victory on Sunday, when attempts to restart the race, which was interrupted by fog on Saturday evening and paused for 14 hours, proved futile.
Much to the frustration of the 240,000 spectators, drivers and teams, after five laps behind the safety car to determine whether the race could be restarted, race director Walter Hornung decided to call it a day with 54 minutes still on the clock. The Rowe Racing team, which ranked seventh in the provisional standings with its BMW, appealed the stewards’ decision to protest the result.
As soon as the decision not to restart was announced, the fog finally lifted for the first time in over 15 hours.
Speaking to Motorsport.com, Hornung explained: “Our original intention was to restart the race after the restart in SC. First, I called a weather station who told me the situation would improve between 2pm and 2pm; 15″.
Since the safety car is not normally used on the Nordschleife, the relevant rules are not specified in the regulations. The lead car was called the “leading car”, but took on the function of safety car according to the DMSB circuit regulations.
“We ran five laps behind the Leading Car and during this period the weather did not change much – added Hornung – The weather station’s forecast did not come true as they had predicted and it was already 2.30pm”.
“We were also promised a possible improvement at 8 am and then again at 12 pm, but this did not occur in either case. This further reduced my confidence in this weather station.”
When the fog lifted, it was too late to resume the event which for the first time was part of the Intercontinental GT Challenge.
Hornung made a half-joke about what happened, trying to take it philosophically: “It’s always like this: no matter how you do something, in the end it turns out you did it wrong. If we had let them drive for another seven-eight laps, probably the fog would have remained. We didn’t, so it dissipated.”
He also clarified that the decision not to restart the race and to use the Code 60 at the most affected spots on the GP circuit was made due to the feedback received from the 2021 event, which previously held the record for the most affected event short and the fewest laps completed.
“At the time, before the stoppage, we had tried exactly this. Then the drivers came to me and complained that the tires were getting too cold and not working. At the time they told me clearly that they no longer wanted this solution “.
The decision to end the race with the checkered flag rather than the red flag has important implications for the result.
The possibility of prematurely interrupting a race is dictated by the DMSB circuit regulations in article 17.2, which states: “The organizer can decide that the race ends after a certain time, even if the distance has not been reached. After the start of the event, this decision requires the approval of the stewards.”
If the race were definitively aborted, the two laps preceding the display of the red flag would be counted, as in the case of the interruption on Saturday evening. Furthermore, another clause of the regulation would apply which would overturn the entire classification.
In this circumstance Article 35.1 would apply, which states: “The minimum pit stop times (including any time penalties) valid at the time of classification will be added to the total driving time (of the interrupted race section, to determine the starting grid for the restart) as a time penalty.”
This would have led to some delays, as some teams, including Rowe, tried to be clever behind the Leading Car/Safety Car and headed towards the pits, on the one hand because they hoped to gain an advantage on the restart, but also in in the event that the race was interrupted with a red flag.
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