Round 7 of the 2021 DTM championship came to an end and Indian driver Arjun Maini had a mixed bag of a weekend at the Hockenheimring. The agricultural town in Germany hosted two races over the weekend and Maini could only collect five points from them. His first race was disastrous as it saw him retire on the opening lap and in the second race, his fast pace was mired by penalties. Here’s how things went down.
Arjun had said that the final two tracks were one of his favourite ones and he displayed his comfort with the layout from the start of the weekend. During the first practice, Maini topped the timesheets and marked his pace right off the bat. He carried the momentum forward and qualified fifth for the race. But things went downhill from there. As the cars started the race, Maini quickly gained a few positions and was challenging for the top three positions. As the front runners came into turn six, Maini tried to make a move on Lucas Auer. But he couldn’t stop the car and took Auer out in the process. Maini also suffered heavy damage to the car and in turn, had to retire from the race.
Maini received a five-place grid penalty for the accident which he had to serve in the second race.
Race 2
Maini was showing a strong pace during the second qualifying round and secured P3, which was his best qualifying position in DTM so far. But after the addition of the five-place grid penalty, he had to start from P8. In the race, Maini had a decent start and didn’t lose positions. Unlike his usual strategy of pitting early, Maini and the Mercedes-AMG Team Getspeed decided to pit deep into the race. But Maini’s pitstop didn’t bear the fruit they were looking for. Instead, they received a five-second time penalty for a pit-stop regulation infringement and that dropped him to P8 even though he finished higher in the actual race.
Arjun walks away from the weekend with 22 points which puts him in P14 in the driver’s championship. Only one race remains in the 2021 DTM series which will take place at Norisring on October 8. Stay tuned to evo India for news and updates from the motorsport world!