Sheldon van der Linde made an impressive start to his DTM career, however an incident with Audi Sport Team Rosberg driver Jamie Green damaged his race two result and brought his debut weekend to a disappointing finish.
The BMW Team RBM driver displayed strong pace in the wet on Saturday, qualifying seventh and picking up points in his debut race in sixth place.
In the dry second qualifying the South African secured tenth place and was hoping to take home a double-points finish.
But the teenager’s second race in the DTM was all but concluded by an incident following the safety car restart.
“I believe we had the potential to finish in the points again today,” said van der Linde. “To be honest, I’m not happy at all.
“I was spun by Jamie Green at the re-start after the safety car period. I could do absolutely nothing about it.”
As the pack battled for track position on lap nine, the Audi RS5 Turbo DTM of Green locked up on the inside entering the Mercedes Arena.
Bumper-to-bumper the three cars of BMW Team RBM Joel Eriksson, van der Linde and Audi Sport Team WRT Jonathan Aberdein turned in, and it was the BMW M4 of van der Linde that was spun with contact to the left rear.
The resulting damage impacted van der Linde’s pace and stopped him challenging for a top ten finish.
“Our car was damaged after that and we had no chance anymore.”
The incident was reviewed by the stewards and Green was handed a drive-through.