Hockenheim: It wasn't quite enough 🎥

Nico Müller preserved his title chances with his sixth win of the season on Saturday, as the highlights from Race 1 at Hockenheim show.

The two title contenders fought a hard-fought duel throughout the weekend - especially in Saturday's race.

René Rast secured pole position with an advantage of 48 thousandths of a second. Müller managed the better start from second place and an overtaking maneuver in the first turn that forced Rast off the track. It was just a foretaste of the further course of the race in which the two Audi drivers repeatedly overtook each other and made light contact several times.

An almost perfect Saturday
In the end, Müller crossed the finish line 0.622 seconds ahead of Rast as the winner - for the sixth time this season.

Nico Müller: "It was the kind of day we needed. The team played a decisive role in this. After the second safety car, we didn't know exactly whether there would be four or five laps to go. They told me that it was going to be extremely close and that I should watch very closely. Knowing that it was the last lap was very important today."

His opponent could only confirm this.

René Rast: "I think we could have won if I had known it was the last lap. When I crossed the finish line, I looked at the display. It said two laps to go. I wanted to save the attack with push-to-pass and DRS for the last lap and was shocked that the race was over. I don't know what went wrong - but that cost us the win today."

Clear case for the defending champion
With his sixth win of the season, the 28-year-old from Berne reduced the gap to the German in the standings to 13 points. In the decisive final race, however, the defending champion was invincible despite the fact that the Swiss, who had only started fourth, was in the lead for a few laps after changing tires earlier.

As a result, Müller had to settle for second place in the race and was narrowly beaten in the championship with 330 points behind Rast (353).

Nico Müller: "It's hard to describe my feelings. I knew it would be difficult here, but you always believe in it. When you've been ahead in the championship for so long, you also want to win the title. We just weren't fast enough today to challenge René. We changed a few small things compared to yesterday that we thought would help us. But that obviously went in the wrong direction. That was frustrating, of course."

Zolder as a turning point
How and where does he think he lost the championship?

Nico Müller: "Not in Hockenheim, but already in Zolder. I'd like to congratulate René on a great season. He is a worthy champion. We had great battles and maybe they weren't our last."

The highlights of the 18th and final race of the season. René Rast was in control of the action, even though he was trailing for a while.

DTM 2020 final stand drivers

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