Nico Müller controls opening race at the Nürburgring to extend advantage

Nico Müller extended his championship lead at the top of the DTM standings with a controlled victory in the opening race at the Nürburgring, finishing over 15 seconds ahead of fellow Audi driver René Rast.

Müller started the race from pole position and was never really changed during the race in sunny conditions in the Eifel region, with Rast providing the closest competition in the early stages of the race.

By the time the Swiss racer made his mandatory pit stop on lap 12 he had opened up an advantage of three seconds, which he extended in the second phase of the race on fresh rubber to a comfortable 15.655 seconds.

Rast claimed second, but had to battle hard with Robin Frijns for the position, which in turn helped Müller to get away at the front.

The battle came to a head just four laps from the finish when Frijns, clearly faster than Rast and on tyres which were a lap newer, used to DRS to make a move into Turn 1, but the dutchman carried too much speed and clattered the inside kerb before spinning out.

The pirouette for Frijns dropped him two places, with BMW’s Marco Wittmann and Audi’s Mike Rockenfeller also getting past.

Wittmann ran fifth in the early phases of the race but the two-time champion closed up to Rockenfeller with fresher rubber and on lap 23 made a pass on his fellow German at Turn 1, although it took until Turn 4 for the move to be completed.

Rockenfeller claimed fourth, just ahead of the recovering Frijns, who remains second in the points in fifth.

BMW’s Philipp Eng was sixth, ahead of stable-mate Timo Glock in seventh, with Glock having gained a place when he passed Audi’s Loïc Duval in the pitstop phase of the race with a faster tyre change.

BMW’s Sheldon van der Linde was eighth, the South African gaining a place due to a penalty for Duval which came for corssing the white line at the pit entrance.

Duval nonetheless lost just one place for his penalty, originally five seconds but increased to ten before the end of the race, with BMW’s Jonathan Aberdein completing the top ten.

Aberdein only gained the final points-paying position because team-mate Lucas Auer was given a post-race four-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

That also promoted WRT’s Ferdinand von Habsburg to 11^th, ahead of his fellow Austrian Auer, who was thus 12^th.

All 16 drivers finished the race, with Team ART’s Robert Kubica in last, 25 seconds behind the next nearest car and with a fastest race lap which was over two seconds slower than the best.

Race result

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	51	Nico MÜLLER		Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi RS5 DTM	31	58:10.251	1:49.975	1
2	33	René RAST		Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi RS5 DTM	31	15.655	1:50.512	2
3	11	Marco WITTMANN		BMW Team RMG	BMW M4 DTM	31	18.141	1:51.016	4
4	99	Mike ROCKENFELLER		Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi RS5 DTM	31	20.842	1:50.998	5
5	4	Robin FRIJNS		Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi RS5 DTM	31	22.978	1:50.788	3
6	25	Philipp ENG		BMW Team RBM	BMW M4 DTM	31	23.389	1:51.114	9
7	16	Timo GLOCK		BMW Team RMG	BMW M4 DTM	31	28.101	1:50.901	12
8	31	Sheldon VAN DER LINDE		BMW Team RBM	BMW M4 DTM	31	31.236	1:51.184	6
9	28	Loïc DUVAL		Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi RS5 DTM	31	38.442	1:51.094	8
10	27	Jonathan ABERDEIN		BMW Team RMR	BMW M4 DTM	31	46.735	1:50.765	16
11	62	Ferdinand VON HABSBURG		Audi Sport Team WRT	Audi RS5 DTM	31	47.537	1:51.571	11
12	22	Lucas AUER		BMW Team RMR	BMW M4 DTM	31	47.905	1:51.380	10
13	53	Jamie GREEN		Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi RS5 DTM	31	49.168	1:50.556	7
14	10	Harrison NEWEY		Audi Sport Team WRT	Audi RS5 DTM	31	50.200	1:51.002	13
15	13	Fabio SCHERER		Audi Sport Team WRT	Audi RS5 DTM	31	51.984	1:51.064	15
16	8	Robert KUBICA		BMW Team ART	Audi RS5 DTM	31	1:16.023	1:52.206	14