DTM Zolder: Müller shows plenty of fighting spirit 🎥
NEAR THE PODIUM With fourth place at the sixth DTM race in Zolder, Belgium, Nico Müller made a comeback in the top group. Things didn't go as planned for Lausitz winner Philip Ellis. The highlights of race 2 show how Philip Ellis ruined his race early on and how Nico Müller settled for position 4 after riding through the gravel [...]
The highlights of Race 2 show how Philip Ellis ruined his race early on and Nico Müller fought his way up to 4th position after riding through the gravel.
In Sunday's race, Nico Müller, who had started fifth, went off the track in his Audi R8 LMS in the early stages through no fault of his own. With a masterful driving and strategic performance by Team Rosberg, the driver from Bern nevertheless missed the podium by just one position.
Nico Müller: "At the restart after a safety car period, Mike Rockenfeller pushed me out unfairly, so I lost a lot of places. After that, thanks to good pace and a strong pit stop by my team, I was able to close in on the leaders again. If the race had lasted a few laps longer, I might even have been able to attack third place."
Ping pong on the race track
Müller started Saturday's first race from ninth on the grid, but was involved in an accident in the early stages and dropped back. The Swiss, who fought all the way to the finish line, was still able to work his way into the points in tenth place.
Nico Müller: "On Saturday I felt like a ping-pong ball, and despite the heavy damage my pace was still surprisingly good afterwards. Basically, we can be reasonably satisfied with fourth position on Sunday, but we have to keep working. Then we'll be able to fight for victories again soon, because that's what we're here for."
Only four points for Philip Ellis
Philip Ellis experienced the worst weekend of his first DTM season so far in Belgium. In the first race over 55 minutes and three laps on the four-kilometer circuit, he did not finish higher than eighth place in his Mercedes-AMG.
On Sunday, the driver from Zug slammed on his brakes in the first corner, spinning off a brand colleague in the process and only finished in P16 after the pit-stop penalty.
South African maintains top spot in table
The two races ended with victories for Kelvin van der Linde in ABT's Audi R8 and Marco Wittmann in Walkenhorst Motorsport's BMW M6. Wittmann is thus the fifth race winner in six races.
After finishing 8th on Sunday, the South African remains at the top of the standings with 101 points, followed by Ferrari driver Liam Lawson (P3 in race 2) with 80 and Maximilian Götz (second on Sunday) with 72 points. Ellis and Müller occupy intermediate ranks 6 and 9 with 54 and 38 points respectively.
The next DTM race weekend will be held at the Nürburgring sprint circuit from August 20 to 22.
