Tears after losing second place: What went wrong with Rene Rast's stop

(Motorsport-Total.com) - When Rene Rast first encounters the mechanic who made a mistake during the crucial pit stop after Sunday's DTM race in Oschersleben ( race report ), the mechanic has tears in his eyes and puts on his sunglasses. But the Schubert-BMW driver, who finished fifth instead of second after a comeback from 15th place, encourages his crew member and offers him encouragement.

"I've had really strong pit stops for two and a half years now, always gaining positions, and today I dropped back two or three positions," he shrugs in an interview with Motorsport-Total.com .

"This is a completely new situation for the guys: four pit stops in one race. That's enormous pressure, especially when you come into the pits with two or three cars. It can happen—I'm not mad at anyone."

Team boss Schubert: "You can't get the nut set anymore"

What happened? Thanks to a perfect strategy, the Schubert-BMW driver was already running second from 15th on the grid when the second stop went wrong: Rast needed 9.281 seconds due to a problem with the left rear and front, while his pursuers Jules Gounon, Jordan Pepper, and Thomas Preining were dispatched two seconds faster and passed.

"The moment you're on the impact wrench just a tiny bit too early, you can't get the nut to set," explains team principal Torsten Schubert in an interview with Motorsport-Total.com . "This is the first time this position hasn't quite worked out. We win and lose as a team."

The wheel wasn't properly seated on the central locking mechanism, meaning the nut wouldn't engage, and the mechanic had to apply additional pressure. This cost crucial time.

Rast can completely understand his mechanic's emotional reaction. "The guys train hard, put their heart and soul into it. And when one or two of them are responsible for a podium finish or no podium finish, that obviously bothers them. Without that second pit stop, we would have finished second," he says with conviction.

How Rast even came close to victory from 15th place

But how did Rast even manage to return to the track in second place after the first pit stop, behind eventual winner Ayhancan Güven? The pit crew played a crucial role in this, too.

"If we start from 15th place, we have the right to choose our tires," he said, referring to the rule that only the top 10 drivers have to start with qualifying tires. So the Schubert team opted for the last remaining brand-new set for Rast and teammate Marco Wittmann, who ultimately finished sixth.

"This gave us a huge advantage over those who didn't have new tires, and we managed to muddle through the field. I was somewhere around tenth after the first lap, and the top ten had to stop early because they were out of good tires. I can ride longer with the new tires—and go faster for longer."

Schubert's fabulous times at the first pit stops

In addition, the leading group was engaged in direct duels after their stops, while Rast had a clear path. When he came in shortly before the end of the first stop window, the Schubert crew managed a fabulous time of 6.518 seconds. Only one driver was faster: teammate Wittmann in 6.241 seconds.

Rast suddenly found himself in second place, but then couldn't keep up with Güven's pace because he had a used set of tires on his car. "Everyone around him was using new tires—and then you can't go any further," explains team boss Schubert.

In the end, Rast opted for Saturday's qualifying tires, which he hadn't used in the race after retiring. "But they didn't do me any good," Rast said. "He had completed 20 fewer laps and, in theory, should have been five to seven tenths faster than the cars in front of me, but we still weren't any faster."

That's "the pace we actually have compared to the others," he says, referring to the balance of performance. Ultimately, however, he's satisfied with fifth place after Saturday's disappointing performance: "I think we would have signed up for that before the weekend."