Sweep the Leg Johnny!

Controversy errupted at a DTM race at the Red Bull Ring in Austria over the weekend.  In a fight for 6th place between the Audi of Timo Scheider, the Mercedes of Pascal Wehrlein and the Mercedes of F1 reserve driver Robert Wickens things got a little touchy.  

Wickens was defending from Scheider when Wehrlein passed around the outside.  As they approached the next corner a call came over Scheider's radio from Audi's Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, head of Audi Sport, effectively telling him to "SWEEP THE LEG."  Except it was "Push him out!"  The result was a surgical bump from Scheider that collected both Mercedes' drivers sending them into the gravel.

Dr. Ullrich told AutoSport:

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

"What was done with Timo was not the proper way to go about things. But it was most definitely not my intention that Robert and Pascal end up in the gravel trap.

"I'm sorry that I shouted, 'Timo push him out' in my initial emotion at the command post. I do not communicate with the drivers by radio during the race and did not know that the radio was open.

"This was not an instruction for Timo by any means. I can only apologise to Mercedes for this remark.

"An expression like that does not reflect my idea of motorsport, but was strictly due to the adrenaline at that moment.

"I'm a racer and was fuming about the way Timo was dealt with."