The twelfth race of the season was dominated by the three title contenders: Nico Müller, Robin Frijns (both from Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline) and René Rast (Audi Sport Team Rosberg). Frijns managed a perfect lap in qualifying. “Achieving the fastest time in all three sectors is something that only rarely happens in the DTM,” said the Dutchman after his fifth pole position – the 19th consecutive one for Audi. “The lap also felt really good in the car.”
In the race, however, the winner of Saturday’s race was only able to hold on to his teammate Nico Müller for six laps. “Nico was simply a bit faster. It wouldn’t have made any sense for me to fight with him. Sometimes, it’s smarter to bring home a second place. This was the maximum I could achieve today.”
Nico Müller made up one place at the start and used DRS and Push-to-Pass on lap seven to overtake his teammate. Afterwards, he continued to pull away at the front. At the finish, the Swiss had an 11.790-second lead over Robin Frijns and 19.526 seconds over René Rast.
“This victory was very important today,” said Müller after his fifth win of the season. “I had a lot of bad luck on the last two race days. To come back in this way feels good. I’m especially happy for the whole team, who worked until the early hours of the morning to prepare a perfect car for me again. Robin’s team also helped, because the damage after yesterday’s race was quite substantial. To win with this car today, in such a dominant way is great. Thanks to the ABT team and also to Audi for this great car.”
With two wins each for Nico Müller and Robin Frijns, Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline remained unbeaten on both Nürburgring weekends. “ABT is simply one step ahead of us at the moment,” said René Rast. “Yesterday, we were quite fast in the race. Today, I had to fight more again, especially with the second set of tires. I am satisfied with my own performance: I didn’t make a mistake and never gave up, but all in all, we can’t be happy, of course. We have to continue to work hard and catch up. The championship is not decided yet.”
Ferdinand Habsburg took sixth place for the customer team WRT Team Audi Sport. The Austrian only had to admit defeat to Robin Frijns in qualifying and started from the front row for the first time in the DTM.
Audi Sport Team Phoenix scored points with both drivers on Sunday. Mike Rockenfeller finished seventh, Loïc Duval ninth.
Jamie Green had to park his Audi RS 5 DTM in the pits shortly before the end of the race due to a problem with a sensor. The Briton was classified 15th.