While sun was out for the viewers, some clouds appeared for the team Audi Sport Abt Sportsline, as the pilots Nico Müller and Robin Frijns were not able to come up with a result as positive as during the race in Misano two weeks ago. With a lot of effort, Nico Müller managed to fight his way from the starting position number 16 to the tenth position. His colleague Frijns, who was highly motivated after his very good results at Misano, was one of only two Audi drivers who were able to score at Nürburgring. The Dutch fought his way from the last grid to position number ten while profiting from numerous scrappings and collisions that also set four of his Audi colleagues, Loic Duval, Mike Rockenfeller, Nico Müller and Jamie Green, back. They reached positions number eleven, twelve, thirteen and fifteen.
Both Audi Sport Abt Sportsline pilots took a very honest and self-reflective look back on the races at Nürburgring:
Nico Müller (Castrol EDGE Audi RS 5 DTM #51) 10th place / 13th place
“On Saturday I had a bad qualifying session, but a good race. On Sunday qualifying was a little better but I just didn’t get lucky to be sixth or seventh. In the race the pace felt good and we had the chance to finish sixth or seventh. I was involved in a hard battle with Pascal Wehrlein, got knocked into a spin and dropped out of the top ten.”
Robin Frijns (Aral Ultimate Audi RS 5 DTM #4) 17th place / 10th place
“The weekend didn’t start well. From first free practice I was a little behind and wasn’t completely satisfied with my car. In the second race the pace was quite okay, but I had the feeling that we didn’t extract the maximum. However, on the whole I’m pleased with tenth and a point.”
But there still is hope since the season is not over yet: the Audi Sport Abt Sportsline pilots Müller and Frijns will come back and try their best at the upcoming races at the Red Bull racetrack in Austria on September 22nd and 23rd and also at Hockenheim on October 13th and 14th.