Nico Müller says he chose not to take greater risk in his battle for victory in the Sunday DTM race at the Lausitzring, in which he finished 0.089s behind race winner Rene Rast.
Müller was chasing Rast in the closing stages of the race after a late pitstop and caught up with the reigning champion with a lap remaining in the race.
An overtaking attempt at the first turn by Müller failed, and as the Swiss driver kept the pressure on, the two passed the finish line practically side by side to record one of the closest finish margins in DTM history.
When asked after the race if he should have taken more risk in trying to pass Rast, Müller explained that he decided against it as he felt ‘today was not the day to do so.’
“I think that when you are so early in the season and you race a brandmate, you kind of approach battles slightly differently,” he said. “For me, today was not the day to go all in on the last lap, as I was not close enough going into turn one.
” We just needed that half a second more, somewhere earlier in the race to really close the gap going into the last lap.
If it was the last race of the season, and it was about winning the championship or not, with that position, for sure I would have taken more risk, but I think today was not the day to do so.”
Rast, for his part, explained that he was aware that his Swiss rival was closing in.
“I knew Nico would be coming, because he stopped later,” said Rast. “I always checked where he was on track and tried to manage my tyres.
“Obviously, the last two laps he came closer and closer. I expected the race to be one lap shorter, so I was a bit surprised that we had to go one lap longer than my calculation was.
“In the end, it was the smallest gap between DTM cars ever at the finish, so it was quite entertaining.”
