Scherer Sport PHX’s Audi took a provisional victory on Sunday when makes an attempt to restart the race, which was halted by fog on Saturday night and paused for 14 hours, proved abortive.
To the large frustration of the 240,000 spectators, drivers and groups, following 5 laps behind the security automotive to find out whether or not the race might be restarted, race director Walter Hornung made the decision to finish the race with 54 minutes left on the clock.
The Rowe Racing BMW staff that completed seventh within the provisional classification has appealed the choice of the stewards to protest the result.
As quickly as the choice towards a restart was introduced, the fog lastly lifted for the primary time in additional than 15 hours.
Chatting with Autosport’s German-language sister website Motorsport-Whole.com, Hornung defined: “Our unique intention was to renew the race after the restart.
“Earlier than the restart, I known as a climate station, which instructed me that issues would enhance between 2 and a pair of:15 pm.”
The race restarted behind the security automotive. Since a security automotive will not be usually used on the Nordschleife, the principles for this aren’t specified within the laws. The lead automobile was known as the ‘main automotive’, however it took on the perform of a security automotive in keeping with the DMSB circuit laws.
“We drove 5 laps behind the main automotive and through this time the climate didn’t change a lot,” added Hornung.
“What the climate station had predicted didn’t come true and it was already 2:30pm.
“We have been additionally promised a spot at 8 o’clock after which once more at 12 o’clock, however neither of those occurred. This made my belief on this climate station even smaller.”
When the fog then lifted, it was too late to renew the occasion which was forming a part of the Intercontinental GT Problem for the primary time.
Hornung mirrored on the event philosophically: “It is like all the time; irrespective of the way you do it, you do it flawed.
“If we had allow them to drive seven or eight extra laps, the fog would in all probability have remained. We did not, so it cleared up.”
He additionally clarified that the choice was taken to not restart the race and use Code 60 on the worst-effected factors on the Grand Prix loop due to suggestions from the 2021 occasion which beforehand held the document for the shortest occasion and fewest laps accomplished.
“Again then, earlier than the interruption, we tried precisely that,” famous Hornung.
“Then the drivers got here to me and complained that the tyres have been getting too chilly and it wasn’t working. On the time, they made it very clear that they did not need that.”
The choice to finish the race with the chequered flag fairly than the purple flag has main implications for the end result.
The potential of prematurely stopping a race is regulated within the DMSB circuit laws underneath Article 17.2, which states that “the organiser could resolve that the race ends after a sure time, even when the gap will not be reached. After the beginning of the occasion, such a call requires the approval of the stewards.”
If the race have been deserted, two laps can be counted again, as was the case when the race was interrupted on Saturday night time.
As well as, one other clause within the laws would apply, which might flip all the classification on its head.
Beneath this circumstance, Article 35.1 would apply, which states: “The minimal pit cease instances (together with any time penalties) legitimate on the time of the classification shall be added to the entire driving time (of the interrupted part of the race, to find out the beginning grid for the resumption) as a time penalty.”
That will have led to some delays, as some groups together with Rowe tried to be intelligent behind the security automotive and headed for the pits – on the one hand as a result of they hoped to achieve a bonus on the restart, but in addition in case the race was stopped with a purple flag.
