Rene Rast has been stripped of his win in the Sunday DTM race at Spa-Francorchamps after he was given a ten-second time penalty for illegally using Push-to-Pass while leading the race.
Rast beat Müller to victory in a tight duel, but it was revealed in a post-race verification of vehicle data that the reigning DTM champion activated his push-to-pass system twice while in the lead of the race, which is not allowed.
The German driver was handed a post-race time penalty of ten seconds for the infringement as a replacement for a pit stop penalty.
“As the Deutscher Motor Sport Bund (DMSB), the authority responsible for ensuring that the regulations are adhered to, announced after the hearing on Friday, 14th August, Rast had activated the push-to-pass system twice during the race at Spa on Sunday while in the lead,” the championship wrote in a statement.
“According to the regulations, this is not allowed. In the post-race verification of the vehicle data, which is always done in the week after the race, the infringement became apparent.
Subsequently, Rast was given a ten seconds’ time penalty as a replacement for a pit stop penalty. As a result, the defending champion drops to third in the classification behind his fellow Audi drivers Nico Müller and Robin Frijns (NED), after René Rast’s team (Audi Sport Team Rosberg) decided not to appeal.”
The penalty hands rival Nico Müller a second win at Spa after also taking victory in the Saturday race.
