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Nurburgring DTM: Frijns wins Race 2 as Muller slips to fifth

Robin Frijns overhauled championship leader Nico Muller to claim his second victory of the 2020 DTM season at the Nurburgring on Sunday.

Podium: Race winner Robin Frijns, Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline

Podium: Race winner Robin Frijns, Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline

ITR eV

Muller had qualified on pole position for the second consecutive race this weekend, and made a clean start to lead the field into Turn 1 ahead of title rivals Frijns and Rene Rast.

Rast challenged Frijns for second on the opening laps but his pace slowly began to fade away, allowing the leading duo to pull clear of the rest of the field.

Muller appeared to have the edge over his Abt Audi teammate and even when Frijns was able to bring the gap down to one second, he was able to respond immediately to extend his advantage back up to 1.4s.

Muller and Rast were the first of the leaders to stop on lap 11 of 31, with Frijns heading to the pits one lap later to cover them off.

This gave Muller an extended advantage of three seconds over Frijns once the pitstops were settled, but the race leader's pace inexplicably dropped in the second stint, allowing Frijns back into contention.

Frijns cut down the deficit to half on lap 16 and closed sufficiently to make a move on the following lap. Going into the final turn, Frijns dived down the inside of Muller, with the championship leader putting up no fight and letting his Abt teammate through to take the lead.

Once out in front, Frijns was able to build a two-second lead in a single lap, and from there on he enjoyed an unchallenged run to claim his second victory in as many weekends.

Muller meanwhile fell into the clutches of Rast in the closing laps, and the reigning champion pulled out of his slipstream to snatch second position going into Turn 1 on lap 25.

Having lost second to Rast, Muller dropped further places in the closing laps of the race, elevating 2013 champion Mike Rockenfeller onto a podium position for the first time in 2020.

Fellow Audi driver Loic Duval also got through to finish fourth, with Muller eventually crossing the line in fifth in what was his joint-worst result of the season for the championship leader.

Assen Race 2 winner Sheldon van der Linde was BMW's top finisher in sixth, as Audi continued its dominance of the 2020 season to lock out the top five spots.

Veteran Audi DTM driver Jamie Green finished seventh ahead of BMW's Jonathan Aberdein after the two drivers ran wide after making contact at the final chicane.

Two-time DTM champion Marco Wittmann dropped to 13th on the opening lap, but recovered enough to bag two championship points in ninth, as his BMW stablemate Philipp Eng rounded out the top 10.

Lucas Auer was the first driver to make his pitstop on lap 5, but was unable to take advantage of his aggressive strategy and finished outside the points in 11th.

Formula 1 convert Robert Kubica, likewise, couldn't convert a best starting position of the season - a ninth-place - into a points finish, taking the chequered flag in 12th.

DTM Nurburgring - Race 2 results:

Cla # Driver Car Time Gap
1 4 Netherlands Robin Frijns
Audi RS5 Turbo DTM 2020 58'16.157
2 33 Germany René Rast
Audi RS5 Turbo DTM 2020 58'20.438 4.281
3 99 Germany Mike Rockenfeller
Audi RS5 Turbo DTM 2020 58'26.415 10.258
4 28 France Loic Duval
Audi RS5 Turbo DTM 2020 58'28.730 12.573
5 51 Switzerland Nico Müller
Audi RS5 Turbo DTM 2020 58'29.253 13.096
6 31 South Africa Sheldon Van Der Linde
BMW M4 Turbo DTM 2020 58'29.644 13.487
7 53 United Kingdom Jamie Green
Audi RS5 Turbo DTM 2020 58'32.898 16.741
8 27 South Africa Jonathan Aberdein
BMW M4 Turbo DTM 2020 58'33.854 17.697
9 11 Germany Marco Wittmann
BMW M4 Turbo DTM 2020 58'35.777 19.620
10 25 Austria Philipp Eng
BMW M4 Turbo DTM 2020 58'45.066 28.909
11 22 Austria Lucas Auer
BMW M4 Turbo DTM 2020 58'46.059 29.902
12 8 Poland Robert Kubica
BMW M4 Turbo DTM 2020 58'48.127 31.970
13 10 United Kingdom Harrison Newey
Audi RS5 Turbo DTM 2020 58'51.056 34.899
14 16 Germany Timo Glock
BMW M4 Turbo DTM 2020 58'59.994 43.837
15 62 Austria Ferdinand Habsburg
Audi RS5 Turbo DTM 2020 59'12.551 56.394
16 13 Switzerland Fabio Scherer
Audi RS5 Turbo DTM 2020 50'49.879 5 Laps

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