DTM: Title in a rush

Second victory in a row: following his success on the Grand Prix circuit, Robin Frijns also won the first of the two DTM races on the Nürburgring’s sprint circuit. The “Flying Dutchman” clinched an extremely rare lights-to-flag victory in the DTM, even though his lead was wiped out three times by the safety car. “It was pretty nerve-racking,” said Frijns after his narrow victory. “Every time I had built up a lead, the safety car came out. When René was directly behind me for the final laps and was able to use Push-to-Pass and DRS all the time, I knew that I couldn’t afford the slightest mistake.”

René Rast had secured pole position with an impressive lap in the morning. “The start was decisive,” confirmed the two-time DTM champion. “On Friday, we had a technical problem in the first free practice session and even after the second practice session I was unable to practice a start. Is was my first real start and it was not a good one.” At times, Rast even dropped back to third place, but then recovered his second place at the last restart and then started chasing the leader in the final stages of the race. “I didn’t want to overtake Robin before the last lap, but maybe I attacked a little bit too late,” said Rast. His slow start also had an indirect effect on championship leader Nico Müller. “I was stuck behind René, who seemed to have zero grip, so two BMWs overtook me in the first few corners,” said the Swiss. After the first restart, it got even worse for him: “I was squeezed between two cars, was hit from behind and got turned around.” From last place, Müller fought his way up to fifth with an early pit stop and by far the fastest lap of the race.