Nico Mueller secured his fifth victory of the season today on the Nurburgring Sprint circuit, beating his rivals Robin Frijns and Rene Rast. BMW just missed out on the podium with Sheldon van der Linde finishing fourth.
Frijns had a fantastic start to today’s race, making the most of his pole position and leading WRT’s Ferdinand Habsburg into Turn 1. Even though it seemed like Habsburg had a good start, he lost second place to Mueller into Turn 2. Then, the Austrian continued to lose ground as Rast and Marco Wittmann got past him, dropping him back to fifth. Meanwhile, ART’s Robert Kubica received a five-second pitstop penalty for being in an inaccurate grid position.
Initially, it seemed like Frijns was beinning to build a little advantage over his teammate. But Mueller soon responded, bringing the gap down to just 0.5 seconds by lap 5. The championship leader started to put serious pressure on Frijns. His efforts paid off, as Mueller made a move into Turn 1 on lap seven of the race to take the lead. For a moment, it looked like Rast was joining the battle for second place, but he was unable to get close enough to make a move.
As a result, Rast opted to make his mandatory pitstop on lap 13, first of the leader pack. He tried to undercut Frijns, but a slow stop didn’t help. Rast lost out further as Mueller pitted on lap 14 and rejoined ahead of him. Another lap later Frijns emerged out of the pits with a two-second gap over Rast. So, the positions remained unchanged.
After all the pitstops were completed, Mueller was able to slowly build his advantage in the lead. On lap 19, the Swiss driver was the fastest man on track with lap times around one second faster than Frijns behind him. In the end, Mueller crossed the line 11.7 seconds ahead of his teammate Frijns, who won the Saturday race. Mueller therefore extends his championship points lead a little more.
‘This victory was very important today’, said Mueller after the race. ‘I had a lot of bad luck in the last two race days. To come back in this way feels good. I’m especially happy for the whole team, who worked until the early hours of the morning to prepare a perfect car for me again. Robin’s team also helped, because the damage after yesterday’s race was quite substantial. To win with this car today, in such a dominant way is great. Thanks to the Abt team and also to Audi for this great car.’
Image Credit: BMW Presse
In the second half of the race, Rast was unable to stay close to the leading duo. In the end, he had to settle for third and finished almost 20 seconds behind Mueller. Once again, Van der Linde finished as best of the BMW’s in fourth. This also means that the South African climbs to the fourth position in the drivers’ championship.
‘I am very pleased with today’s race’, Van der Linde commented. ‘Finishing sixth in qualifying was very important for the race. I didn’t make a good start and lost some positions, but I was able to reclaim them. The car drove really well today and the pace was very good. The strategy was also really good. We pitted early and the undercut worked out. That meant that we had a very long second stint but the car felt great all the way to the finish.’
Wittmann finished fifth today, crossing the line 24 seconds behind Mueller. Despite losing ground early on, Habsburg appeared to have a much better pace in the second half, crossing the line in sixth. Audi Team Phoenix’ Mike Rockenfeller finished seventh. The 2013 champion had some hard but fair battles throughout the race – in the early stages with his teammate Loic Duval, and in the final few laps with BMW’s Timo Glock. The latter finished eighth, 3.5 seconds behind Rockenfeller. Duval and Jonathan Aberdein rounded out the top ten, scoring the final points.
Jamie Green was one of the two drivers who didn’t make it to the finish. The Brit started off on the back foot as he began the race at the back of the grid following a penalty. Then, he pitted very early on lap six of the race. He struggled for pace towards the end of the race and decided to pit a second time. Ultimately, four laps later he returned to the pits to park his car in the garage. The second driver was Kubica, who retired on lap eight with a gearbox problem.
Next up on the calendar is Zolder, in three weeks time. The drivers now have a bit of time to prepare themselves for the final phase of the season. Mueller is leading the championship with 242 points. Following close behind is Frijns with 224 and Rast with 195. With today’s 1-2-3 victory, Audi has already secured the manufacturers’ championship.
