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Pepe Oriola accuses Jaap van Lagen of brake-testing him in Germany

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Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Pepe Oriola was critical of the stewards call to give him a drive-through penalty in the first race at Oschersleben, accusing Team WRT’s ringer Jaap van Lagen of deliberately brake-testing him which caused their contact.

Van Lagen was running in fifth in the Team WRT Volkswagen Golf after a poor start from the front row, before he was hit in the rear by Oriola’s SEAT, and dropped to 11th, but recovered to finish eighth.

The 23-year-old Spaniard was given a drive-through penalty for the incident, which meant he went on to finish in 19th and out of the points, while he was caught up in the crash at the start of Race 2, and scored no points on Sunday in his championship fight.

“Apparently the stewards didn’t look at the footage,” said Oriola. “As the corner where I hit Van Lagen it was flat out, so that means he braked on purpose to slow me down, so it’s clear he was just trying to push me out.”

Van Lagen however says Oriola was a fault for the incident, and struggled on with a damaged car to the finish.

“Pepe Oriola hit me so hard, full-on from behind, and I have a painful back and neck,” said van Lagen to TouringCarTimes. “I don’t know why he hit me at this corner as there’s nothing you can do there to overtake. I was just lucky I could still control the car.”