How the injured Preining averted drink scandal after DTM victory

Why did Thomas Preining stay in his cockpit after taking his third Norisring DTM victory on Sunday, then unsteadily limp to his father instead of jumping on the roof of his Porsche like he usually does?

“Unfortunately, I injured my ankle while running in the woods at home three weeks ago, then there were two 24-hour races and now here,” the Manthey driver told ran.de, referring to his major outings at the Nordschleife, Spa-Francorchamps and in Nuremberg within three weeks.

“That hasn’t healed so well yet. And now I’ve driven the whole race without air conditioning.”

Air conditioning costs power, which Preining needed dearly when fighting Jack Aitken’s Ferrari for victory. “It just gets super hot in these cars,” he said.

A crucial moment was when the Austrian refused a soda bottle handed to him by the mechanic helping him out of the cockpit; back in 2013, race winner Mattias Ekstrom had been disqualified at the same track when his father had poured the content of a water bottle into his racing suit’s pocket before he’d been weighed.

Preining, who knows the regulations, proceeded directly to the weigh-in area after celebrating with his team – but the reason why he stayed so long in his cockpit was also linked to the water situation, with his own onboard water bottle.

“Mainly, I was just drinking when I was in parc ferme,” he explained.

“The drink bottle officially is not part of the car. So it has to go out of the car for weigh-in. But you still carry the weight for the whole race. You want to make sure you keep it for the weigh-in. So it’s in here now,” Preining added, grabbing his stomach.

The 2023 DTM champion, who is seven points behind standings leader Lucas Auer halfway through the season, was not the only one who was completely exhausted after the race.

Aitken did not let go of his bag of ice cubes during the post-race interviews. “My new best friend,” the Briton joked.