By alley - Sep 26, 2016, 5:01 AM ET

DTM: No blame for title rivals' clash - Audi

Audi DTM boss Dieter Gass believes nobody was to blame for the collision between championship rivals Edoardo Mortara and Marco Wittmann at the start of race two in Hungary.

Mortara made a slow start from pole position, with BMW's Wittmann moving to the outside of the Audi and being pushed onto the grass.

As Wittmann rejoined, Mortara ended up making contact with him and fellow Audi driver Jamie Green, breaking a wheel in the process. While Mortara eventually retired after running round at the back following a lap-one pit stop, Wittmann nursed his own damaged car to fourth place, only to then be excluded post-race for a technical infringement.

"It was a real shame," said Gass, who took little heart from the fact Audi scored a one-two with Mattias Ekstrom and Adrien Tambay.

"It's extremely frustrating not to be able to feel really happy in spite of a one-two result. We could definitely have achieved more. We had fast cars. The situation at the start was extremely unfortunate - you can't really blame anyone either.

"Edo had a little too much wheelspin, that's what set off this unfortunate chain of events. That it resulted in our two drivers with the best points score [as Green also retired] being taken out of the race is frustrating."

BMW motorsport boss Jens Marquardt said Wittmann "dealt very well" with the incident, and the championship leader stopped short of criticising Mortara.

"In my opinion it was caused by Edo's mistake at the start – his wheels were spinning," said Wittmann. "I had all the momentum so I went over to his side of the track, and obviously I won't just back down.

"I think he wanted to block Eki [front row starter Ekstrom] first and he pushed me over onto the grass. There was contact, and there was contact again when I came back [onto the track]."

Wittmann's exclusion from the race reduced his 26-point lead to 14 heading to the Hockenheim double-header finale.

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