Four days after the end of the championship DTM, which saw the unexpected and last-minute success of the German Maximilian Götz, the controversy has not yet subsided after what happened at the first corner after the start of Race-2 at Norisring: the Audi driver Kelvin van der Linde, in an attempt to outclass the leader of the race and the standings Liam Lawson, in fact, he ended up heavily colliding with the latter with a risky maneuver, heavily damaging the Ferrari of the New Zealander, then forced to proceed slowly for the rest of the race and finishing last. In this way, Lawson thus compromised his defense for the title, as well as, subsequently, Van der Linde himself, victim of a puncture that gave Götz the go-ahead.
Deep breath and here we go: pic.twitter.com/f9F8myaOy1
– Kelvin van der Linde (@KelvinvdLinde) October 13, 2021
In the days following the incident, the social pages of the South African rider were targeted by numerous users, who sent messages and comments laden with hatred and insults against Van der Linde, guilty of the accident that took place at the start that knocked out Lawson. Tired and bewildered by these vulgar events that have nothing to do with the noble spirit of sport and motorsport, the Audi driver vented on Twitter with a long message: “After Sunday’s race – commented – I decided to stay away from social media to reflect on what happened. It was there that I wanted to get in touch with the one person who deserved an apology. Liam and I talked last night. We discussed everything that had happened, and I apologized for the action that cost him the championship. I also apologized for how I interacted with the media immediately after the race. I was full of adrenaline and had a microphone close to my face without having seen the contact images on TV first. I didn’t behave well, and I’m not proud of it ”.
“From a sporting point of view, everyone is free to express their opinion. We drivers have to make important decisions in a split second, and they are not always the best, so much so that they often have serious consequences. The social media attacks I received this week have left a bad taste in my mouth, and it will take time to metabolize. The only thing I felt like doing is to write the following: you don’t know me, you don’t know my family and you definitely don’t know what I went through. Sport is sport, but never forget that there are people behind this reality. I do not wish anyone what happened to me. I’ll be back next year and I’ll try to improve myself ”.