Wittmann: No Rast/Aberdein penalty for Misano DTM clash unacceptable

The trio entered the long Turn 8 right-hander side-by-side, with Wittmann on the outside and Aberdein alongside Rast on the inside line.

Aberdein then made contact with Rast, which knocked the Audi into BMW driver Wittmann and forced the Saturday race winner out of the race with damage to his steering column.

Race control took no action after a post-race investigation, but Wittmann said he though the collision was similar to his own with Audi's Robin Frijns at Zolder that earned him a drivethrough penalty.

Wittmann told Autosport: "I was braking later into Turn 8 and left him [Rast] enough room to survive on the inside.

"Then it was, I think, Aberdein who dived into a situation where there was no place for him to do so.

"He hit Rene and Rene massively hit my car and afterwards it was damaged and the steering wheel was not straight anymore and broken.

"It's a shame as it's happened twice with Audi and [both times they did] not get a penalty."

Wittmann's collision with Frijns at Zolder came as the Audi driver suffered a gearbox problem.

Frijns said he did not blame Wittmann for that clash, and when he compared the incident to the one in Sunday's Misano race, Wittmann claimed "even Audi admitted the [Zolder] penalty was maybe the wrong decision".

He continued: "But we had to swallow it and now they both continue [in the race] and I'm out and they get no penalty.

"For me, this decision is not acceptable, and I have to accept it.

"I cannot change it and the fact is I go home with zero points on Sunday which is frustrating."

It is understood the DTM's took its position on the incident in order to be consistent with its desire to avoid excessive penalties that could discourage wheel-to-wheel racing.

Rast said in the post-race press conference that unlike Wittmann, who was shown the incident during live coverage, he had not watched a replay.

"Marco and I went side-by-side from Turn 6 and down the straight," said Rast.

"Wittmann braked late on the outside, I was on the inside, and Jonathan appeared on the left-hand side and we all turned in. I got a hit from that and then hit Marco.

"I couldn't really avoid anything and that's how it felt from the inside.

"It's sore for him, it was not intentional or anything, I was just in a sandwich."

WRT's Aberdein told Autosport that the driver briefing ahead of the weekend had defined Turn 8's track limits as including the run-off area.

"Marco had just stayed a little bit too close to the inside and didn't open enough and didn't know there was a car inside of Rast," added Aberdein.

"For me, it was a racing incident. It's no-one's fault."