22 May Fifth place for Nico Müller
Team Rosberg’s Nico Müller finished fifth in round four of the DTM season at the 4.601 kilometers long DEKRA Lausitzring and moved up to fourth place in the drivers’ standings. During qualifying, the Swiss was unlucky, since Felipe Fraga’s burning Ferrari caused an interruption just as Müller was about to set a fast lap. In the race he could not find a way past BMW driver Philipp Eng and finished fifth. Dev Gore also had an unfortunate qualifying session but was able to show later in the race that he has the potential to finish in the top ten.
Nico Müller: “My race was pretty entertaining. However, I could not get past Philipp Eng, the BMW was just exceptionally fast here. But what can you say when BMW driver Sheldon van der Linde easily wins this race despite a 25-kilogram load. My qualifying did not go that well either, because just as I was about to attack, the session was interrupted. The red flag came at a really bad time for me. With a better starting position than sixth place, a podium finish would have been possible.”
Dev Gore: “I think I had the pace for the top ten today, but unfortunately my position in qualifying was not good enough. I was not very lucky in this qualifying, because after the interruption there was only one last chance for a fast lap and I got blocked pretty heavily by a rival. I am satisfied with my performance throughout the race, even if P17 is of course frustrating, but the reason for it was the bad starting position.”
Kimmo Liimatainen (team principal): “In qualifying, we had the potential for more than sixth and 25th place. We were not lucky with the timing of the red flag but also learned something from this situation. Dev got caught up in traffic during his last fast qualifying lap because some opponents were driving very aggressively. Later on, he then had a good race. Nico also drove a clean race, but since the BMW in front of him was extremely fast, especially during the fast sections, he was not able to overtake him. I think P5 was the best he could do today. I was also pleased that he overtook two drivers, Mirko Bortolotti and Ricardo Feller, thanks to our good pit stop strategy. Overall, today was more positive than yesterday, even if it was not perfect.”