LAWSON SUFFERS DTM HEARTBREAK

Kiwi Liam Lawson was denied the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) title by just three points after copping heavy damage in the final race from his major title rival.

The junior driver required a top-six finish to seal the title in the season finale at the Norisring but was brought undone at Turn 1 when Kelvin van der Linde careered into the front left of his Red Bull backed Ferrari.

Having suffered severe suspension damage, Lawson attempted to limp around the track and hoped for a miracle but was ultimately unable to finish the race.

Lawson would have been the youngest DTM champion in history at 19 years of age, instead presenting for his post-race interview aggrieved and ruing what could have been.

“Exact same as yesterday, I really thought the guy (van der Linde) would learn after what he did yesterday,” Lawson said.

“To do the exact same thing, obviously ruined our race from there so yeah pretty gutted.

“It’s really just disappointing for the whole team, they really deserve this, they’ve worked so hard this year.

“Every weekend they’ve given the absolute maximum, so I really wanted to repay them this weekend with the title.

“We had it right there as well, pole position again today, car was really good, had another good start, but sometimes you just can’t prevent the same idiots from doing the same thing.”

Just after half race distance van der Linde was also eliminated, in an attempt to keep behind Maximillian Gotz (who was an outsider for the title) the South African aggressively defended and sliced his tyre on Gotz’s Mercedes resulting in a puncture.

Gotz was now in third, however Mercedes ordered multiple drivers ahead to stand aside to allow the German to secure the championship with a race victory.

It was an improbable result for Gotz, who had only won one race for the season before sweeping the final weekend.

Lawson qualified on pole for both races in Nuremberg and scored his 10th podium in Race 1.

There were four drivers in contention for season honours heading into the final battle, Marco Wittmann vying with Lawson, Gotz and van der Linde.

After all was said and done, van der Linde ended the season in third with Wittmann finishing fourth.

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