DTM: One lap too few for Müller 🎥
PHOTOFINISH In Sunday's spectacular DTM race at the Lausitzring, defending champion René Rast and championship leader Nico Müller crossed the finish line side by side in their Audi RS 5 DTM. The highlights show how fiercely contested the second race on the sprint circuit in Lausitz was in the top positions. After three consecutive victories - four in all - [...]
The highlights show how competitive the second race on the sprint circuit in Lausitz was in the top positions.
After three consecutive victories - four in all - Nico Müller was narrowly beaten by his Audi colleague René Rast. 0.089 seconds separated the two Audi drivers. The last time there was such a close finish in the DTM was 24 years ago.
One lap too short
After a long first stint, Müller came back onto the track in seventh place, but then quickly made up position after position and, with the fresher tires, finally chased down front runner René Rast.
Nico Müller: "In the end, I was only one car length short of victory. Yesterday the race seemed to take forever - today I was praying that it would last one lap longer."
Moving forward with a good race strategy
Unlike the day before, he did not get off to the best possible start from second position.
Nico Müller. "There was more grip than I had expected. When René and Robin drove a bit of rallycross in front of me, I briefly had the lead. But I ended up on the outside lane in the third corner. As a result, Marco Wittmann also got past and I dropped back to fourth place. After that, it was hard work - but we managed the race well."
Audi one-two victory
Müller's Abt teammate Robin Frijns started from pole position for the third time in the fourth DTM race of the year. His qualifying performance seems to be right, but the tire wear in the race is not quite right yet.
After an early pit stop, Frijns had to let first Rast, then Müller and two laps before the end of the race also the BMW of Marco Wittmann pass.
Müller extends its lead in the table
After four of 18 scheduled races, Nico Müller leads the drivers' standings with 100 points ahead of René Rast (61) and Robin Frijns (58).
In the teams' classification, Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline is ahead of Audi Sport Team Rosberg (95) and Audi Sport Team Phoenix (58) with 158 points. In the manufacturers' championship, the score between Audi and BMW is 283:107.
The DTM will hold two more races at the Lausitzring next Saturday and Sunday, August 22nd and 23rd - then on the slightly longer track variant. There is no reason why the Audi works driver from Blumenstein, who had a sensational 2020, should not be back at the front of the field.
Results DTM Lausitz Sprint2 DTM standings after 4 of 18 races
