DTM Assen: Days of the new winners 🎥
MÜLLER TWICE THIRD For once, it wasn't Nico Müller who set the pace. But with two third-place finishes in Assen (NL), the championship leader again collected important points. There were new winners in both races. The highlights of race 1 show how Robin Frijns triumphed in front of his home crowd. At the fourth DTM event in 2020, Robin Frijns captured [...]
The highlights of race 1 show how Robin Frijns triumphed in front of his home crowd.
At the fourth DTM event of 2020, Robin Frijns became the first Dutchman to take victory since Mercedes driver Christijan Albers in Estoril in 2004. After the 29-year-old from Maastricht had already failed to take advantage of four pole positions in the season, which has been running since the beginning of August, to score his hoped-for first victory, Nico Müller's Abt Audi teammate prevailed in Saturday's race in a thrilling three-way battle from second on the grid.
Emotional victory in front of home crowd
Audi colleagues Loïc Duval, who had started the race from position 1 on the grid, and Nico Müller were breathing down his neck all the way to the finish line. Only nine tenths of a second separated the Audi trio in the top three positions.
As championship leader, the newly minted father could live well with third place.
Nico Müller: "Of course I was hoping to defend my third place on the grid. But it was a bit slippery in the first corner so I lost places. After my stop to change tires, I had the problem as the third-placed driver that Loïc in front of me could also use DRS to attack Robin. That was the crucial problem in the end. But I'm very happy for Robin and our team."
Fabio Scherer accident
The second Swiss in the field initially improved from 15th on the grid. A contact with an opponent then resulted in a pit stop penalty, whereupon Fabio Scherer with the Audi RS5 from the private WRT team dropped back hopelessly and only finished in 15th place. A consolation and a sign that ideally there is much more in it was his fastest race lap in the entire field.
The Lucerne native, who lives in Engelberger, was then the one who caused unwanted excitement in Sunday's race on a wet track. Hoping for an improvement in the weather, he switched to slicks at the mandatory stop. This was a risk that led to a violent crash and an interruption to the race a short time later.
The highlights reflect how Sheldon van der Linde in the BMW came from the back of the field to take his first win after Sunday's race had been interrupted due to Scherer's accident.
First victory for a South African
At the race stoppage, Sheldon van der Linde in the BMW M4, who had only started the race from 14th place after a disappointing qualifying session, was in the lead. At the front, the 21-year-old did everything right on the rolling re-start and defended his lead confidently to the finish.
The Abt drivers Frijns and Müller tried everything, but could no longer pose a threat to the BMW driver in the rain that started again. His victory goes down in DTM history as the first for a South African.
Best entertainment in Assen and Monza
Not only for the spectators on site and at home on TV, it was thus a similarly turbulent race as the Italian GP in Monza later won by Frenchman Pierre Gasly in the Alpha Tauri-Honda.
This was also the opinion of Nico Müller, who maintained his lead in the standings with his seventh podium in the eighth round of the season.
Nico Müller: "It was a very entertaining race from the cockpit perspective as well. After a good start I was stuck behind Loïc and Robin. That I lost several places again on the first lap was annoying. The poor visibility in the rain made it very difficult to catch up. BMW managed a pretty smart move with the early pit stop for Sheldon. The red flag helped them even more, of course. Third place is a good result, but we didn't get the maximum out of it here. The hunger for victory is definitely getting bigger again."
Further on the Nürburgring
Nico Müller already has the opportunity to quench this next weekend at the Nürburgring, where the DTM squad will stay for two consecutive events. With his first win and second place on Sunday at Assen, Robin Frijns is now second in the championship. Third is defending champion René Rast, who had to settle for two fifth-place finishes.
Müller's lead is still 26 points - one more than it would take to win. The exact standings can be found here take out.
