Photo: Audi Mediacenter

Nico Müller praises his team for third victory of the season

Nico Müller said Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline deserved full praise for the effort that helped him to a third victory in three DTM races this season.

Müller dominated the race from start to finish, and was the fastest driver in Saturday’s opener at the Lausitzring.

Müller, together with team-mate Robin Frijns, as well as Team Rosberg’s René Rast, is in a very special racing marathon, as the three finished Sunday’s race at the season opener at Spa-Francorchamps to fly straight back to Berlin for the six-race Formula E season finale.

With the last race taking place on Thursday evening, the trio had a matter of hours before the first free practice session at the Lausitzring.

“The time prior to this weekend was very atypical, and more of a roller-coaster for me,” Müller told TouringCarTimes. “We had a very tough few weeks behind us and you come here and to say that you are 100% fresh would be a lie.”

Müller had been the man to beat from the first free practice session, but then qualified in second place on the front row for Saturday’s race. At the start, Müller got ahead of Frijns into the lead, a position he would maintain for the remainder of the race.

“To have a team around me that gave me the key information to help me with what I had to focus on was very important, for today and also for tomorrow,” the Swiss driver said. “I’m very happy, they gave me a quick car, they did quick pit stops, so I think that a large part of this performance belongs to them and I’m glad I can reward them.”

The Team Abt Sportsline driver had an issue when, due to the slow zone to recover Loïc Duval’s retired Audi, he found himself slowed down by BMW’s Jonathan Aberdein: “He slowed me right down, we went down to 50 km/h at times, and I lost all the advantage I had built before.”

Despite the problem, Müller was able to keep ahead and build again a gap to BMW’s Sheldon van der Linde, in second place.

Team manager Thomas Biermeier acknowledged his drivers’ effort: “Overall, we are quite happy with the results. They had a lot of races, Spa, Formula E and now Lausitz, so it hasn’t been easy for them.”

“Nico’s performance today was outstanding,” said Audi Motorsport boss, Dieter Gass. “The only thing was the slow zone, he was so annoyed he lost so much time, but he kept it cool, he kept the pace, was clearly the fastest car in the race and he deserves the victory.”

Müller is now a comfortable leader in the championship with 80 points, 37 ahead of Frijns and 45 over Rast. In the manufacturers’ table, Audi has 212 points in their tally, with BMW counting 76.