DTM Hockenheim: Müller's farewell as Audi factory driver 🎥
FINALE WITHOUT ANOTHER POINT OF GLORY After nine good years, Nico Müller said goodbye to Audi Sport as a factory driver at the DTM finale at Hockenheim. Unfortunately, there was no podium at the end but a handful of points.
It was Nico Müller's decision to leave Audi Sport at the end of the 2022 DTM season. The future prospects at Peugeot were too tempting - keyword Le Mans. The Ingolstadt-based company was no longer able to offer them to him after turning away from the program already started with a hybrid sports prototype in favor of Formula 1 - as engine partner of Sauber Motorsport.
Saturday horror
In front of many Swiss fans in the paddock and on the grandstands, Müller would have liked to put himself in the limelight once again. In Saturday's race, which was overshadowed by two serious accidents involving several cars and fortunately did not result in any injuries (see video), the Audi R8s were at a disadvantage in terms of classification compared with their BMW and Mercedes rivals and therefore had no chance in the fight for the podium.
In addition, Müller's car was pretty badly affected by some contacts. More than 8th place was therefore out of the question.
Damage limitation at the beautiful finish
In Sunday's more sedate race, in which 20 GT3 sports cars started in beautiful autumn weather instead of 27 as on the previous day, Müller again suffered early contact with an opponent. Despite the resulting damage to the car, the Bernese driver was able to finish in sixth place.
Nico Müller: "The race became a battle after the early collision. Sixth place was thus the maximum for me. On the whole, today was a very nice end to my nine years in the DTM with lots of spectators and a very good atmosphere overall."
Less successful than in the last two touring car years
After finishing runner-up in the Audi RS4 in 2019 and 2020, Müller was unable to build on his recent successes in the 600-plus horsepower turbo touring car with the new Audi R8 Evo from Team Rosberg. As a result, he had to settle for a single victory on May 1, 2022 at Portimão - his eleventh overall in the DTM - in the GT3 era that began in 2021.
He closes the 2022 DTM as the second-best Audi driver in seventh place among 27 drivers with points. The race wins at the Motodrom Hockenheim were clinched by Austria's Lucas Auer on Mercedes-AMG on Saturday and Marco Wittmann on BMW M4 GT3 on Sunday. The championship title goes to South African Sheldon van der Linde on BMW ahead of Auer and Renè Rast (Audi).
No happy ending for Feller and Ineichen
The second Swiss Audi factory driver Ricardo Feller was one of the many accident victims on Saturday. Rolf Ineichen's drive also ended brutally in a wall, after which his Lamborghini had to be written off for the rest of the weekend.
Feller's ABT team, on the other hand, managed to repair the R8 in a night shift. On Sunday, the driver from Aargau catapulted it from the back of the field into the top ten within a few laps before a puncture set him back again.
He then finished twelfth and last without scoring any points. Feller finished his first season, which had already brought him his first DTM victory on the second weekend in Imola, in 15th position.
Ricardo Feller: "My first DTM season was very mixed. There were nice moments and not so nice moments. Luck wasn't quite on our side most of the time. Nevertheless, working with ABT Sportsline and Scherer is a lot of fun."
Final standings DTM 2022 Classification race 1 Classification race 2