21 Aug Nico Müller shines bright after catching up from 17th onto 8th place
Nico Müller impressed with a great race on the 3.629 kilometers long sprint circuit of the Nürburgring. In the 7th race of the DTM season, he started from position 17 and worked his way up to 6th place on the track with fast laps and strong overtaking maneuvers. Unfortunately, he received ten penalty seconds after crossing the finish line, which put the Swiss driver in 8th place of the final classification. According to race control, he left the track too often and he also came into slight contact with Marco Wittmann. His team mate Christopher Haase only had a short DTM debut, the German started from a good 7th place and retired after a collision during the first lap.
Nico Müller: “To be honest, I was a bit lucky during the first lap: I got through it without any damage and even won a few places. After that I had some nice maneuvers; I believe my pace and that of my car weren’t too bad. However, the penalties do frustrate me. Two weeks ago in Zolder, for example, some drove off the track all the time, and here you directly get a five-second penalty. Besides, such contact like the one with Marco Wittmann, also costing me five penalty seconds, in my opinion can happen when you are racing.”
Christopher Haase: “My start was ok, but I got caught between two cars in the following corners. I would not have expected someone driving on my right side next to me, because at that point of the track there is a risk of even bigger contact. And that’s exactly what happened. I guess I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. My car was too damaged, so I had to give up in the pits.”
Kimmo Liimatainen (Team Principal): “Christopher drove very well during qualifying; I was happy about his 7th place. I think, he still had the potential for something more. That was really good for his first DTM appearance. Therefor it’s even more annoying, that he had a collision at the beginning of the race and had to retire. Nico didn’t have a free lap in qualifying and found himself on 17th place. In the race, he then showed what was possible. His driving performance was great and he was able to move up to 6th place. Unfortunately, the two five-second penalties put him back in 8th place, which for sure is a bit of a pity.”