Edoardo Mortara blasts penalty; “They’ve thrown my weekend in the bin.”

Audi Sport Team Abt’s Edoardo Mortara was distraught with the drive-through penalty he was served in the race today at Zandvoort, which saw the championship front runner relegated from sixth to 17th for breaking the speed limit during the slow zone application.

The slow zone was deployed on lap nine after the MTEK BMW of Augusto Farfus went off into the gravel at Turn 9.

When the slow zone was cleared, both Mortara and team-mate Nico Müller were soon handed drive-through penalties by the race stewards for having broken the 80km/h speed limit, a decision which Mortara and Audi have said was unjust.

“It’s more than disappointing when you do everything right and then you get robbed,” said Mortara to TouringCarTimes. “I’ve had eight or ten points stolen today, it’s a disaster. I’m really upset with what happened as we did nothing wrong. We’ve sent them our onboard videos, we’ve checked the data, and to have ten points stolen from us when everything is so close just feels so bad.

“The decisions they are sometimes taking have dramatic consequences. With decisions like this, they’ve thrown my weekend in the bin.”

Mortara doesn’t believe the slow zone itself that’s the issue, which works just as Formula 1’s “virtual safety car” system, but that the telemetry needs to be absolutely accurate before punishing a driver mid-race.

“The idea is correct. To limit cars at 80km/h when there’s a danger, but they are trying be precise with a system which is not,” he said. “You cannot give penalties unless you’re 120% sure your decision is right.”

Mortara’s no-score seems him drop to joint-third in the championship standings, 20 points behind BMW’s Marco Wittmann, and shares third with Audi team-mate Jamie Green.