Photo: Daimler Global Media

Gary Paffett – Bruno Spengler ‘frustrated’

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Mercedes’ Gary Paffett said the three incidents which have seen Bruno Spengler fail to finish the last three races, stem from frustration for the outgoing DTM champion.

The latest clash saw Spengler punished by the stewards after the race at Oschersleben for causing an avoidable accident with Paffett’s HWA Mercedes team-mate, Robert Wickens.

The two Canadians collided on lap-37 after Spengler’s BMW made contact with the Mercedes driver, after Wickens managed to pass the struggling Spengler going into Turn 2 at the end of the start finish straight.

The collision resulted in DNFs for both drivers; Wickens retired with a broken suspension on lap 39, whilst Spengler retired a lap later after his bonnet released himself from his Schnitzer run BMW M3.

However, Paffett, who was Spengler’s team-mate at Mercedes until the Canadian moved to BMW for 2012, recently told TouringCarTimes he feels Spengler’s recent tangles are because the BMW driver is frustrated.

“Bruno didn’t have any pace at all, which is incredible; he got pole on Saturday on that tyre, and ended up having no speed on Sunday.

“It was very surprising to be honest, because he was the bottleneck in the cars around him

“What he did at Turn 3 was out of pure frustration.

“[I agree] he was annoyed, but he just didn’t brake.

“He appeared to be thinking “that’s it, I’ve had enough”; he didn’t lock a wheel, he didn’t make a mistake, he just took Robert out on purpose.

“In Touring Cars there’s always a bit of rubbing, but when someone just blatanly takes you out, it wasn’t even a racing incident because they weren’t even side by side.

“Robert was furious and has the right to be, because not only did Bruno take him out, the accident also broke his car and caused him a DNF.

The 2005 DTM champion also said he feels the two-place grid penalty issued to Spengler going into this weekend’s race is too soft.

“I’m surprised Bruno has only been given a two-place grid penalty for it, because it was clearly a deliberate act to take someone out.”