Photo: Audi Mediacenter

Nico Müller believes the red flag cost him the win

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Audi driver Nico Müller completed a solid DTM weekend at Assen with two podium finishes. But the Swiss driver felt that a victory could have on the cards if the second race hadn’t been interrupted with a red flag.

Müller qualified in fourth position, just outside of the top three point-scoring positions for the first time this season.

The deciding moment of the race for Müller came when WRT driver Fabio Scherer crashed into the barriers, bringing out the red flags.

“After a good start, I was stuck behind Loïc (Duval, Audi) and Robin (Frijns, Audi),” said Müller after the race. “It was annoying that I again lost several places on the first lap. The poor visibility in the rain made it very difficult to catch up.”

“I managed to work my way up to second behind Robin,” continued the Swiss. “BMW managed a pretty smart move with the early pit stop for Sheldon (van der Linde). The red flag of course helped them even more, without it the race would have been between Robin and me.

“Third place is a good result, but we didn’t get the maximum here,” concluded Müller.

Frijns, who remains the only driver to have qualified in the top three for each race this season, was comfortably leading the race when he came for his pit stop at the end of lap 22. He returned to the track in second place just behind van der Linde.

“I was quite surprised that I was only second after the pit stop and suddenly had to fight with Sheldon van der Linde,” said the Dutchman after the race.

“After the red flag, the conditions were very dangerous,” added Frijns. “There was an extreme amount of water on the track. It would have been stupid to risk too much and throw away second place.”

Despite the results not being what the Team Abt Sportsline drivers would have expected, Müller leaves Assen with 164 points and a 26-point lead over Frijns, with Team Rosberg’s René Rast, who could only manage fifth on Sunday, 44 points adrift.

In the manufacturers’ table, Audi has extended its lead to 543 points against 242 for BMW Motorsport.