Wickens "embarrassed" and "ashamed" of grid mistake
Robert Wickens says he was embarrassed about lining up on the wrong position in the second DTM race at the Hungaroring, which forced him to start last instead of eighth.
Robert Wickens Mercedes-AMG Team HWA, Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM
Alexander Trienitz
After Wickens entered the weekend as the sole Mercedes driver in realistic title contention, his championship chances took a serious blow when he scored only one point in Race 1.
The Canadian qualified eighth for the second race, but stopped on the ninth grid spot after the formation lap, for which he was relegated to last place.
"I was in the wrong grid position, just for some reason I wasn't thinking," admitted Wickens.
"I was just following [Tom] Blomqvist on the formation lap and followed him right into P9 instead of P8.
"It's a joke, I'm so embarrassed and ashamed for my team, we deserved to actually score some good points.
"I've been racing for 12 years now and I've never done that before in my life and then now when there was actually a lot on the line, so I don't know.
"Sure we could set precautions that they remind me that I'm starting on the inside or the outside, but they shouldn't have to, it should just happen naturally so, yeah, pretty stupid.
"Honestly, all I can say is that I'm just embarrassed, I can't even look at my team, I feel like I let them down so much, it's a s**t feeling."
Starting last after an extra formation lap, Wickens went on to finish the race in 12th and was promoted to 10th by post-race exclusions, which was not enough for him to retain a mathematical shot at the crown.
"Still missing that final 10 percent"
When asked about his season overall, Wickens said his and Mercedes' performance has been strong but admitted too many points were thrown away.
"I think our performance has always been pretty strong just we're still missing that final 10 percent," he said.
"We had a lot of bad luck, a lot of missed points, Norisring, Zandvoort, even Moscow a bit and then now here with my own mistake.
"It's points that we desperately need, also for the manufacturers', the teams' championship, for my own championship, it's just stuff that should never happen and we threw away way too many points this year to really give the championship a good fight.
"We have to keep the same pace but just bring home the points all the time."
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