Müller: Out of the dream of the DTM title 🎥
RAST PREVIOUSLY CHAMPION After his victory in the first and 3rd place in the second race at the Nürburgring, René Rast can no longer be caught in the title duel with Nico Müller. The driver from Bern experienced a frustrating anniversary weekend. The highlights of Race 1 clearly show Nico Müller's early start. In Saturday's race, things went well for René [...]
The highlights of race 1 clearly show Nico Müller's false start.
In Saturday's race, everything went according to plan for René Rast, unlike the Swiss. First, the 32-year-old German clinched pole position for the seventh time this season, which earned him three additional points. After a good start, the leader of the standings with the Audi RS 5 from Team Rosberg immediately pulled away from his pursuers, opened up a lead of around six seconds and then controlled the pace at the front. At the finish, he was more than ten seconds ahead of Bruno Spengler in the BMW M4.
Early start from Müller
In contrast, the title ambitions of Nico Müller from Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline were severely dampened. Although the driver from Bern secured a good third place on the grid, he made a false start and finished the race in 16th place outside the top ten for the first time this season.
Nico Müller: "That's clearly on me. The traffic lights were red for a very long time. I only had the choice of stalling the engine or driving off."
Sixth in anniversary race
On Sunday, Rast finished second in qualifying - just one thousandth of a second behind Jamie Green - and third in the race to secure exactly the number of points he needed to win the title early. Here are the highlights from the second Nürburgring race:
Müller's hopes of avoiding this seemed to be dashed as early as in qualifying. Due to a sensor defect on the Audi RS 5 from Abt Sportsline, he had to settle for 14th place on the grid. In his 100th DTM race, the 28-year-old driver from Berne advanced to fifth place before losing a position shortly before the end of the race and thus also losing his last theoretical chance of winning the title.
Nico Müller: "After qualifying it was clear that it would be a difficult race. I pitted early and struggled quite a bit with my tires at the end. Sixth place was the maximum. It's a shame that the title fight is now decided. I'm happy for René and Audi who did a great job and deserved the title. But of course I would have liked to postpone the decision until the finale at Hockenheim."
Seven Audi ahead of BMW
Pole position and victory in Sunday's race went to Rast's teammate Jamie Green. The Briton prevailed in a direct duel against the new champion and in the end fended off the attacks of Robin Frijns, who attacked with fresher tires in the final phase. With Loïc Duval, Jonathan Aberdein, Nico Müller and Mike Rockenfeller in the other places Audi celebrated a seven-fold success. As a result, the men of the four rings equaled the brand record of BMW, which also claimed the seven first places at Zandvoort in 2015.
Nico Müller outperforms Marcel Fässler
Müller's lead over Marco Wittmann, who finished third on Saturday behind fellow BMW driver Bruno Spengler, is still 41 points. So it would have to be a case of the devil if Müller did not leave the Hockenheimring on October 6 as the runner-up in the 2019 championship.
This would make Müller the best-placed Swiss of all time, not only in terms of podium finishes but also in terms of championship standings. Marcel Fässler was third overall in 2003 with AMG-Mercedes.
