Nico Müller: "An enormous satisfaction" 🎥
SECOND DTM WIN Almost three years after Norisring, Nico Müller celebrated the second DTM win of his career on Sunday in Misano. The sixth race of the 2019 season went perfectly for him. On June 28, 2016, Nico Müller let himself be celebrated as the winner at the Norisring. After almost three years, the 27-year-old from Berne was allowed to experience this feeling in Sunday's race at the [...]
On June 28, 2016, Nico Müller was celebrated as the winner at the Norisring. After almost three years, the 27-year-old from Bern was able to experience this feeling again in Sunday's race at the Misano World Circuit near Rimini. For Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline, it was the first success in 624 days.
With a lightning start from fourth grid position forward to second place, the Swiss immediately put himself in an excellent position in midsummer temperatures on the Mediterranean. He took the lead on lap 14 when his Audi colleague René Rast had to bring forward his mandatory pit stop due to a puncture.
"A victory is something completely different"
After his tire change, Müller was able to pull further and further away from his pursuers and finally crossed the finish line as the winner for the second time in his DTM career with a lead of 7.628 seconds.
Nico Müller: "Finally, everything went right in a race. I think I would have won even without René's puncture. That was hugely satisfying! Three years is a long time. I've been close a few times since then and still never won. A podium is always nice, but a win is something completely different. That felt really good."
Here are the highlights from the second race;
Constancy must be optimized
In Saturday's first turbulent race, which BMW driver Marco Wittmann, who had started from the last position, was able to win in a complete surprise, the driver from Berne finished in fifth place. This makes Nico Müller one of only two drivers to score points in all six races so far.
With 76 points, he is third in the standings behind leader René Rast (93) and BMW driver Philipp Eng (83) and ahead of Wittmann (68), although the latter already has two wins to his name. Like Rast, who in addition to two retirements has four podium finishes to his name, including two victories, Nico Müller has been on the podium once at every DTM race weekend so far.
The Swiss now wants to improve this consistency even further.
Nico Müller: "We have to minimize the less good days like Saturday at Hockenheim or Sunday at Zolder. Here in Misano, too, I wasn't so good on Saturday in terms of tire management, and yet I still finished fifth. If you want to stay on the ball in the championship, you should always finish in the top five. We'll continue to work hard on that."
Next stop Nuremberg
In just under four weeks, Müller will return to the scene of his first success. It is difficult to say whether he will be able to repeat the top result of Misano there.
Nico Müller: "At Zolder, BMW was rather stronger, at Misano it was Audi. Our performance is good at the moment, so I see no reason why it should be different at Nuremberg. But the Norisring is special, there can always be surprises there."
