20 Jun Nico Müller on DTM podium in Monza
Team Rosberg and the two drivers Nico Müller and Dev Gore have proven their competence on the 5.793-kilometer racetrack in the royal park of Monza. In the early stages of the race, Müller fought his way up to third place and was brought to second position thanks to a perfectly timed and executed pit stop. Consequently, the Swiss national made it to the finish line with ease. The US-American Gore was able to improve by three places and finished on position 15. At times, he even showed the speed of the top drivers in the field. After the first two races of the season Nico is in third place in the drivers’ standings.
Nico Müller: “I’m satisfied with today’s race, but not truly happy, actually. One of the reasons for this is that I gave away an even better race position in qualifying. Since I was involved in a fight with Liam Lawson and Sheldon van der Linde at the start of the race, Kelvin van der Linde was able to establish a huge lead that I could never catch up to again. The fact that I made it to second place is also due to a good pit stop – thanks to my boys.”
Dev Gore: “I have had a good race; partially I was able to set the lap times of the top drivers. This shows me that there is potential for more. However, I have to stop making mistakes, in qualifying in particular. My start was not perfect today, but once I got into the rhythm it went really well and I was able to overtake a few opponents.”
Kimmo Liimatainen (Team Principal): “Nico did a great job, we as a team managed his pit stop perfectly and he managed his tires extremely well in the end. Dev has to improve a little, especially in qualifying, but that is normal since he is in a process of learning. If you look at his development from the first test until today, he is definitely on the right way. Overall, I am glad that we as a team have shown that we can also compete for the top places with a GT3 car. As opposed to the previous year, we are no longer a factory team, meaning we had to reposition ourselves a little bit differently and have now mastered the first race weekend without any major issues. That just makes me very happy for my entire team. In addition to that, it should not go unstated that the adjustment of the balance of performance from yesterday to today was well accomplished. In qualifying, five manufacturers were in the top six, which speaks for a certain consistency.”