Furious with Kelvin van der Linde for wrecking Liam Lawson’s DTM title hopes, Helmut Marko has called for the South African to be “banned”.
Lawson was in line to win the DTM title, leading Maximilian Götz by 18 points heading into the final race of the season.
The Red Bull junior’s hopes were shattered on the opening lap when Van der Linde, not for the first time this season, crashed into him.
Van der Linde was given a five-second penalty for his antics, with Marko saying a race ban would have been more just.
“If that wasn’t on purpose, then the race management is not qualified enough to take part in such a championship,” the Red Bull motorsport advisor told Motorsport.com.
“There can be no such misjudgement.
“That was a completely mindless manoeuvre by Kelvin van der Linde – and it wasn’t the first.
“He also drove into the rear of Liam at Hockenheim.
“For me this is extremely unsportsmanlike behaviour, which in my opinion should be appropriately sanctioned.
“Such a man should be banned. In Formula 1 he would automatically have so many points through a penalty point system that he would be banned.”
If you missed #DTM this weekend, it was… interesting. Kelvin Van Der Linde took out a rival championship contender, deliberately, got a 5 second penalty, and finished on the podium. And team orders from different Manufacturers decided the title. pic.twitter.com/GvCp3vdc3T
— PanzerF1 ?? (@PanzerTweetss) October 11, 2021
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Lawson limped home in 18th place while team orders from Mercedes saw Lucas Auer and Philip Ellis both slow in the final three laps to let Götz through for the race win, and the DTM title.
Marko wasn’t happy with that call either.
“It wasn’t a very laudable end of the season that Mercedes then played it so ostentatiously,” he said.
Speaking to the media after the race, Lawson labelled Van der Linde as “the dirtiest guy I’ve ever raced against”.
He added: “He never seems to learn.
“To not make through Turn 1 cleanly on both days, to get taken out by the same driver both days is very very frustrating and I would have thought the guy would learn but maybe he never learns.”
Marko agrees: “He said this right.”
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