Arjun Maini ends Belgium race with a chassis failure

India's Arjun Maini suffered a damaged chassis in his Mercedes-AMG DTM car on the Zolder race circuit, bringing a premature end to his first race weekend in Belgium.

Arjun Maini made a stellar start in the first race, overtaking four cars to move up to the 11th position, before becoming a victim of circumstance as the pack made their way into Turn 5.

The DTM rookie, who at the time was locked in a battle with title protagonist Liam Lawson, as well as experienced campaigner Daniel Juncadella, was battling for the 10th place. But Juncadella made an uncharacteristic error, missing his braking point and hitting Arjun from the rear.

The cascading result meant that both Arjun Maini and Lawson were taken out too, with the ensuing carnage forcing all three drivers to retire before they could complete a single lap.

Arjun Maini robbed of an entire race weekend

The damage sustained to Arjun Maini's chassis was so severe that he had to miss the second race of the weekend too.

Despite Juncadella’s public apology, Arjun Maini was left bitterly disappointed after suffering yet another DNF. He said:

“I’m obviously very disappointed by the end result as it means my weekend ended even before it started. I made a great start and was able to make my way up to the 11th, if it wasn’t for the incident, I’m sure I could have scored my first points of the season as I clearly had momentum on my side. Fair play to Daniel Juncadella for apologizing both privately and publicly. We all make errors at some point and it was unfortunate that I was caught up in an incident that had very little to do with me."

Despite the setback, Arjun Maini wanted to put the incident behind him and focus on the next race. He added:

“There really isn’t much else to say and I’m looking forward to racing at the Nürburgring.”

Arjun Maini’s debut in DTM has proved to be anything but smooth. The Indian driver has shown flashes of pace but has simultaneously had a large chunk of bad luck thrown his way during the races so far.

I am very happy to announce that I will be in DTM this season as a @MercedesAMG Driver with team @Getspeed2. An honour to be the first ever Indian driver in the history of @DTM and I am looking forward to this big opportunity in my career. This is the weapon 🇮🇳. Bring it on 🚀 pic.twitter.com/FPQCGertrU

— Arjun Maini (@ArjunMaini) March 25, 2021

The latest incident hurt the most as the Mercedes-AMG driver will leave Belgium without even having completed a lap of racing. However, with more than half a season of racing to go, Maini is more than capable of securing a few strong results to round out his championship.

The next race of the 2021 season is scheduled to take place at Nürburgring circuit in Germany from August 20 to August 22.