Nico Mueller claimed victory in the second DTM race of the season after a commanding drive from the front.
Starting from Pole Position, the Team Rosberg driver put the previous day’s DNF behind him to take the win from Felipe Fraga and Mirko Bortolotti.
Day two of the opening round of the 2022 DTM season got off to a flying start for Nico Mueller as the Audi driver took pole position ahead of yesterday’s pole-sitter, Mirko Bortolotti. Mueller set a time of 1:39:794 which was two-tenths faster than his Italian rival, whilst also being the only driver to set a time in the 39sec bracket.
Like yesterday the fastest times were set within the last four minutes of the session as the track was getting rubbered in throughout the session.
Despite the gap between the first two cars, the times after that were just as close as they were in Saturday’s session. Felipe Fraga completed the top three with a time that was 0.01secs behind Bortolotti however Sheldon Van der Linde got closer to Fraga by setting a time 0.001secs behind the Brazilian.
Lucas Auer rounded out the top 5 with a 1:40:055 in what was a closely fought top ten. Second to tenth were separated by just two-tenths of a second which looked to set up another intense battle in the race.
After some grid penalties were dished out, all eyes were on the start of the final race at Portimao. As the lights went out Bortolotti was involved in another drag race down to the first turn but this time he didn’t come through in the lead as pole-sitter Mueller kept himself out front and start controlling the race.
It wasn’t a clean start through the field however, and an incident involving 5 cars at the rear of the group eliminated Nicki Thiim, Philipp Eng, Rolf Ineichin, Thomas Preining and Mikael Genier. The action didn’t stop there as Maximillian Gotz jumped from tenth place on the grid to fifth in half a lap, the German making quick work of some of his rivals.
Lap 2 saw Felipe Fraga make a bold move in the second sector on Bortolotti which saw the Brazilian move into second place and start to use the pace he had shown all weekend.
Luca Stolz, unfortunately, didn’t have the best start to his race as two pieces of contact cause a puncture on Lap 3 that lead him to retire the car. On the same lap Ricardo Feller had been defending hard from a charging Sheldon Van Der Linde in his BMW but he succumbed on lap 4 going into the first turn.
A frantic first fifteen minutes was bookended by a battle between Lucas Auer and Marco Wittmann on lap 5. With Auer carrying some success ballast, it was tough to keep the BMW behind, but the Mercedes driver kept ahead all the way to the pitstop window.
Fraga, Auer, Sheldon Van Der Linde and Kevin Van Der Linde were the first of the front runners to pit as soon as the window opened. Despite the 4 cars emerging in the same positions there seemed to be a problem for Auer; The Van Der Linde brothers and Dennis Olsen passed the slowing Austrian who subsequently pitted at the end of the lap to rectify the issue.
Nico Mueller had been dominating the race from the start and looked in control as he made his mandatory stop and emerged in front of Fraga keeping his net lead. Bortolotti and Wittmann pit the following lap, but whereas the Lamborghini driver rejoined in net third, Wittmann was passed by Gotz and Kelvin Van Der Linde with the BMW trying to get heat into its tires.
The majority of the race’s action came from the mid-pack as Mueller just looked unassailable whilst waiting for the last cars to make their stops. Fraga had looked like he was closing by a few tenths, but it wasn’t long before the Audi driver responded and increased the gap.
Sheldon Van Der Linde then provided some of the best battling of the race as he went side by side with a recently overtaken Laurens Vanthoor, the pair were door to door from turn 5 all the way to turn 9 where Vander Linde completed the move on the Porsche. But that wouldn’t be the last of the fight as within the last fifteen minutes Vanthoor re-passed the BMW on Lap 25. At the close of the race, it would be Nico Mueller taking the chequered flag followed by Fraga and Mirko Bortolotti. Mueller taking complete control of the race in stark contrast to his and the team’s misfortunes the previous day.
| Position | Name |
| 1. | Nico Mueller |
| 2. | Felipe Fraga |
| 3. | Mirko Bortolotti |
| 4. | Marco Wittmann |
| 5. | Maximillian Gotz |
The DTM now heads to the Lausitzring on 20-22 May where the fight continues.
