Rast falters, Muller’s wins at Lausitzring

Nico Muller takes the win

Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline driver Nico Muller scored a vital race victory in his DTM title challenge, decimating the points deficit to Audi Sport Team Rosberg’s Rene Rast who retired early on at the Lausitzring in eastern Germany.

Muller scored only his second victory of the season and was joined on the podium by Abt Sportsline teammate Robin Frijns and Audi Sport Team Phoenix’s Mike Rockenfeller.

“I finally had a good qualifying again today – not perfect, but good," said the Swiss following his third victory in total in his DTM career.

“From third on the grid, I was immediately able to improve to second position. Marco (Wittmann) was pretty strong at the beginning. But I also had the feeling that I was faster than Rene.

"When he started to have his problem I took the lead and afterwards was able to easily control the pace. I feel sorry about Rene (but not too sorry). I would have rather battled with him on the track. But, obviously, I’m happy to take home the 25 points. We’re back in contention. I can hardly wait for racing to continue tomorrow."

Rast held a 39-point buffer heading into the race, boosted by three points for his earlier pole position compared to Muller's haul of one, and held onto the lead through the opening corners.

Away from the line Rast made a good getaway to hold onto his lead, whilst Team Rosberg teammate Jamie Green fell from the front row to the fast starting Muller and BMW Team RMG’s Marco Wittmann.

Onboard footage showed Rast slowing moments after hitting third gear following the Turn 1 left-hander, with his steering wheel also vibrating heavily as he went through the subsequent corners.

While Rast continued after falling 30 seconds off the lead, he retired soon after and Audi says the problem has yet to be identified.

The top five of Rast, Muller, Wittmann, Green and Frijns were locked together for the opening handful of laps until drama struck the leader.

Rast pulled aside through T3, and stopped momentarily off-track, as Muller inherited a lead he would not surrender for the remainder of the race.

Despite getting his Audi RS5 going again Rast would retire from the race on lap eight, an event that holds significant championship implications.

Frijns was the first of the front runners to make his mandatory pitstop on lap 12, followed by Wittmann a lap later, in an attempt to undercut race leader Muller.

Emerging from the pitlane Wittmann, on cold tires, was vulnerable to an attack from Frijns who had had a lap to warm his Hankook rubber. The Dutchman wasted no time in making a late lunge into T6 for the effective second place.

Race leader Muller made his compulsory visit to pit lane on lap 14 and, despite a pit stop nearly two seconds slower than his competition, did not fall behind the chasing duo of Frijns and Wittmann.

Rockenfeller and Green stopped on lap 17, but drama involving the BMWs of Team RMR’s Timo Glock and Team RBM’s Joel Eriksson saw Green penalized for an unsafe release. The drive-through would drop the British driver out of contention for a podium.

Muller was holding on to a comfortable two second advantage over Audi brandmate Frijns, who was only a second ahead of Wittmann.

With ten minutes to go Rockenfeller was the fastest man on track, and set about reducing the gap to Wittmann. After a failed attempt to pass the BMW on lap 26, the 2013 series champion was ruthless in wrestling the podium position away with a pass around the outside at T1.

Muller extended his lead to 2.4 seconds over Frijns at the checkered flag, and in securing victory reduced the points deficit to Rast to only 14 points. Rockenfeller rounded out an all Audi podium thanks to the late race pass.

Wittmann crossed the line in fourth, after losing out to Rockenfeller late on, but the best placed BMW driver scored vital championship points in light of Rast’s retirement.

BMW Team RMR’s Philipp Eng came home in fifth after a tricky race that saw him slow in the pitlane to avoid an unsafe release penalty.

Audi Sport Team Phoenix’s Loic Duval again scored points in sixth, ahead of Audi Sport Team WRT’s Pietro Fittipaldi who scored his second best result in his rookie DTM season.

BMW Team RBM’s Joel Eriksson finished eighth, ahead of BMW Team RMG’s Bruno Spengler in ninth, and Green recovered from his penalty to round out the top ten.

“That we again finished in the top three with three cars is a fantastic achievement," said Head of Audi Motorsport Dieter Gass. “Congratulations to Nico, who drove an impeccable race. Unfortunately, René was struck exactly by what I’ve always said: In the DTM this year, something can happen at any time and one should never feel too sure. He lost a possible 25 points today. Fortunately, all the other Audi drivers were there to prevent Marco Wittmann from benefiting from this to a greater extent. That was a strong team performance."

Result – 34 laps

Drivers' standings