René Rast upset with Pascal Wehrlein over two shoves at Druids

Reigning DTM champion René Rast said he plans to speak to 2015 champion Pascal Wehrlein, after the Mercedes-AMG driver allegedly ran him off the road twice at the exit of Druids during the race today at Brands Hatch.

Rast was run wide at the exit to the famous hairpin by Wehrlein at the start of the race, with the Audi Sport Rosberg driver forced out wide again on the side-by-side post-safety car restart on lap four, which saw him lose a spot to team-mate Jamie Green.

“We have a rule in DTM that whenever there’s a car next to you, you have to leave him the room to survive on track, but Pascal didn’t do this, twice,” said Rast. “On the first start he did this at the exit of Turn 2 (Druids), and then I thought he’d recognise and learn from it, but after the safety car I was in the same situation again, on his outside, and he didn’t leave me any room and just ran me off the track.

“I’m a bit upset with that behaviour, and I’m going to have to talk to him. Normally we’re good friends and it won’t change that, but I think this kind of behaviour we should avoid.”

Wehrlein saw the move as just tough racing, as the HWA team driver fought to defend his position.

“I tried to defend my position really hard, and we had a contact which damaged my car a little bit,” said Wehrlein to TouringCarTimes. “It wasn’t great for my race pace, but it’s so hard to overtake here and you don’t want to lose a position at the start or the restart; so I tried everything I could and managed to stay ahead, but during the pit stop we lost a position to him.”