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(Motorsport-Total.com) – Robin Frijns’ second DTM win: second-place Abt-Audi driver in the championship, fifth the day before after Harakiri’s maneuver against Rene Rast, triumphs in the DTM race on Sunday Nürburgring Grand Prix track and thus closing the gap with Nico Müller. Second and third: Audi de Frijns colleagues Rene Rast and Mike Rockenfeller.
© Audi
Abt-Audi driver Robin Frijns benefits from a problem with his teammate Focus
Engine temperature problems caused Müller to lose another victory. From the pitstop onward, the championship leader was suddenly about a second and a half slower than the competition per lap and thus fell back from a safe leading position to fifth. Robin Frijns (Abt-Audi) secured the victory and narrowed the gap in the championship to 29 points.
In reality, the signs pointed to another victory for Nico Müller, albeit in a less dominant way than on Saturday. Frijns kept up with Müller in the first set. The two Abt-Audis are distinguished from the desperate Rene Rast (Rosberg-Audi; second). Because Müller, as a front runner, was allowed to pit first, his lead after the stop was two and a half seconds.
Müller motor too hot: was it a faulty sensor?
But then everything went wrong. Suddenly Müller was unusually slow. “The engine temperature has risen,” explains Dieter Gass, Director of Audi Motorsport. “He lost performance, but he stayed focused, crossed the line and took some points.”
Müller has his own suspicions: “The temperature sensor has probably left the ghost. Then the engine goes into safety mode to prevent it from going up.”
“If it reads too high temperatures, it reduces performance because we have to drive this engine all year round. You can’t afford to exploit it. It was a sensor problem that led to safety mode, therefore zero Actuation.”
DTM Nürburgring 1 2020: Engine problem stops Müller-Run
After the second pole position at the Nürburgring, Nico Müller does not reach the perfect race weekend: his teammate Robin Frijns wins his second race in the DTM More DTM Videos
The first to benefit was of course Frijns, who easily took the lead in the 17th of 31 laps and clinched a sure victory. “The feeling is not as good as after the first one,” he admits. “Nico had a problem after the pit stop, what a shame for him. He wasn’t as fast on the straights as before.”
Things got worse and worse for Müller because he couldn’t defend himself. The DRS was still available to him, but the folding wing couldn’t make up for the engine problem, especially since it was available to opponents as well. And push-to-pass was out of the question in emergency mode anyway.
He didn’t really resist Rast because he didn’t want to waste too much time. It was a race against time for him. The competition was drawing near, the clock was ticking. Of course, it didn’t help that Rast made a mistake on the Michael-Schumacher-S shortly after the maneuver, jumped through the gravel and cost Müller more time.
When Mike Rockenfeller (Phoenix-Audi; third) approached the Swiss on the penultimate lap, he led the battle line for the first time. Then Rockenfeller just crossed the outside lane at Turn 1. In the end, Müller also had to let Loic Duval (Phoenix-Audi; 4th) pass.
BMW does not manage even Müller injured
But he was able to defend himself against the best BMW on the last lap. Sheldon van der Linde, surprise winner of Assen, could no longer carry Müller. As the best BMW driver, he was still sixth.
A full BMW package landed at the bottom of the top 10: Jonathan Aberdein (RMR-BMW) finished eighth, followed by Marco Wittmann (RMG-BMW; ninth), who lost a better result with a poor pit stop, and Philipp Eng (RBM-BMW; 10.). Lucas Auer (RMR-BMW; 11th) and Robert Kubica (ART-BMW; 12th), who was significantly better than Saturday, simply missed the points.
Before this package, Jamie Green (Rosberg-Audi) finished in seventh place. The DTM veteran relied on a late pit stop and tire shifting in the final run. However, while trying to catch up, Aberdein got in the way.
The two collided twice, once at Turn 1 and then again at the Veedol chicane. But Green had to let you pass after the second collision following the race control instructions because he had pushed him during the braking phase. However, there were seven laps between the two collisions in which Green lost all tire advantage.
Timo Glock (RMG-BMW; 16th), who couldn’t handle anything on the second stint after an early stop, Ferdinand Habsburg (WRT-Audi; 17th) after a penalty and a ride and Fabio Scherer (WRT-Audi ; 18 °) experienced very mixed careers. ), who went on an adventurous excursion at more than 200 km / h on the gravel bed of the Michael-Schumacher-S.
The DTM will remain at the Nürburgring and will run races 11 and 12 on the speed track next weekend.
