Mercedes' Pascal Wehrlein has ang꧒rily vented his fury at Audi and Timo Scheider for their actions following the controversial last lap clash between the two DTM ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚconstructors at the Red Bull Ring.

Wehrlein's HWA team mate Robert Wickens began the last lap locke𝓀d in combat with Scheider for sixth position. As the Canadian d🍷efended his position into turn 2, the young German seized the opportunity to sneak past the pair on the exit of the hairpin.

That piece of inter-Mercedes strategy incensed the Audi camp, whꦯich led to the now already infamous radio message - that was also broadcast on live TV - seemingly requesting Scheider [in German; 'schieb ihn raus'] to 'push him out'.

Scheider, n🍸ow behind the two HWA C63's, deliberate or not, made contact with Wickens, who could do nothing but sail into rear of Wehrl𒊎ein, both sending them into the gravel trap as a result.

Wehrlein's stint at the championship summit proved to be short lived after only acqu♉iring the lead after yesterday's first race.

"After this race, it's all about the incident on the last lap, obviously," said♊ Wehrle♈in.

"Audi's and Timo Scheider's actions were totally lacking in sportsmanship and cost me vital points in the championship battle. Such a thing should never happen in our spor♛💛t.

"Nevertheless, I will, of course, not give up and try to turn my anger into positive energy in order to fight back with good results in the next race🀅s."

Head of Audi Motor𒆙sport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich expressed his sorrow and regret surrounding the ill-thought radio message but denied it being an direct order to Scheider to take the Wehrlein and Wickens out of the race.

"That waꦺs obviously not a nice ending of an otherwise tremendous race," said Dr Ullrich.

"What was done with Timo was not the proper way to go about things. But it was most definitely not my intention ꦰthat Robert (Wickens) and Pascal (Wehrlein) end up in the gravel trap. I'm sorry that I shouted, 'Timo push him out' in my initial emotion at the command post.

"This was not anꦺ instruction for Timo by any means. I can only apologize to Mercedes for this r💖emark. An expression like that does not reflect my idea of motorsport, but was strictly due to the adrenaline at that moment."

Ullrich continued in saying that h๊ow Mercedes conducted themselves in the heat of battle with Scheider was bound to provoke a reaction.

"I'm a racer and was fuming about🎶 the way Timo was dealt with," the Audi boss continued.

"It's a shame that due to this incident a shadow has been cast on the impeccable per🅷formance delivered by Mattias and the entire Audi squad."

The incident looks set to cause severe ramifications as the champion🃏ship battle begins to reach boiling point with four-race weekends to go, s🌱tarting with Moscow in one months time.