No hard feelings over starting collision between Wehrlein and Martin

A collision between championship leader Pascal Wehrlein and BMW Team RMG driver Maxime Martin at the start at the Nürburgring saw the Mercedes driver visibly frustrated during an early red flag stoppage, when he approached and tapped the window of Martin’s car, but after reviewing the incident, tempers settled down soon after the race.

Martin and Wehrlein made strong getaways from second and third on the grid, with Wehrlein up into the lead around the outside of Lucas Auer’s ART Mercedes, while Martin charged down the inside into Turn 1, with the two making contact, forcing Wehrlein wide and down to fourth while Martin assumed the lead which he went on to convert into his second career DTM victory.

With a red flag due to debris from a collision between the Audi pair of Jamie Green and Miguel Molina, a frustrated Wehrlein got out of his car and went up to Martin’s BMW and tapped on the window to vent his frustration with the manoeuvre.

“I didn’t have a really good start, I could pass Lucas Auer, but Pascal (Wehrlein) had a better start,” admitted Martin after the race. “I locked the front a little bit but I was there at the apex, I think it was a racing incident. I was able to take the lead at this moment and after the red flag I tried to have a gap, and it worked.”

Wehrlein had the opportunity to review the incident before the post-race interviews and had changed his view of the accident from earlier in the race, apologising to Martin as he joined the press conference.

“After the start, when we had to stop at the red flag I was very angry but I hadn’t seen the replay,” said Wehrlein. “Now I’ve just seen it after the race and I’ve seen there was a gap and he just went for the gap. So everything was fine, (it was just) after the start there were so many emotions.”