Yes, WetPad and the penalty made the difference.
If you saw the Delft car on the WetPad, it's insane. Like there is no water. I guess every half-decent team would win with those tires. Impressive what they managed to design!
The penalties got a lot of teams this year. There is an online-tool for ESF. I actually don't know how it exactly works but they told me, you get like dozens of mails of failed documents (it's not one document but for every(!) electrical part of the car, LV and HV) and they missed deadlines.
It's no excuse whatsoever (just make yourself an Excel list when which part has to be re-uploaded...) but as the list shows, it got a lot of teams. Actually Delft had the same 35points penalty but it got removed, I don't know why...
But at least you can be proud of the Zurich team for their Acceleration time. 3,300 ; 3,352 ; 3,303 ; 3,300 -> That's quite good
Harry, there were a couple of DQs in re-scrutineering: KIT Combustion had a restrictor that was too big, Munich was too loud in noise (probably would have been third overall), Zwickau got DQ as well (something electrical).
As far as I know, there were no scrapping DQs in Endurance (although Rennteam Stuttgart "denounced" GFR on a Facebook post that they would be scrapping a lot, not very sportsmanlike...).
The DQs in AutoX killed the event. Yes, I know it's within the rules. But it made watching AutoX really bad. You did never know if you can cheer for a good time because half of them got DQ'd.
The guys on the track listened veeeery carefully at some cars and did not care about others (talked with another guy).
Additionally you cannot challenge a ruling. Who has proof? Who decides?
And the worst part: Some drivers got told after the first run that they got a DQ and could decide if they go out and change the car or do another run. And some guys got not told! That's outrageous!
I think we need another rule there. It's very very frustrating.
Hopefully they do something about it...