Rusinov gets severe Nurburgring penalty for Le Mans crash
G-Drive Racing's Roman Rusinov will have to serve a severe penalty at the next FIA World Endurance Championship round at the Nurburgring following his clash with a Porsche GT car at Le Mans.
Photo by: Nikolaz Godet
The #26 TDS-run G-Drive entry, which Rusinov shared with Alex Lynn and Pierre Thiriet, was an early casualty at La Sarthe after the Russian driver hit the #88 Proton Porsche of Khaled Al-Qubaisi at the Porsche Curves a little over an hour into the race.
Lynn had secured the LMP2 class pole with a stunning lap in Thursday qualifying, but was denied a chance at driving the car in the race as the #26 car was declared a retirement shortly after Rusinov's crash due to suspected chassis damage.
"I'm beyond gutted," Lynn told Motorsport.com. "There isn't really a lot to say. At least I can be proud of the fact I was fastest the last time I got to drive the car [in Saturday morning warm-up]."
Stewards awarded Rusinov with a three-minute stop-and-go penalty for next month's WEC 6 Hours of Nurburgring, where factory Porsche driver Laurens Vanthoor is strongly expected to replace Lynn in the #26 line-up.
Lynn is set for his first Formula E race start that weekend in New York, as a replacement for DS Virgin drivers Sam Bird and Jose Maria Lopez, who are both likely to be unable to miss the Nurburgring race.
The #26 crew has an additional suspended three-minute stop-and-go penalty hanging over it for the following three rounds of the championship.
Second overall at Le Mans for the #38 DC Racing crew of Oliver Jarvis, Thomas Laurent and Ho-Pin Tung has put the trio at the head of the LMP2 WEC standings on 90 points, 52 clear of Rusinov, Thiriet and Lynn.
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments