Nico Müller has ended the 2019 DTM season on a high note by winning the final race on a soaked Hockenheimring.
The championship runner-up started from pole position and passed Rene Rast after the pit stop, leaving the way free to take victory with Mike Rockenfeller in second and 2019 champion Rast in third.
The start of the race brought some bizarre scenes, as Paul di Resta's Aston Martin stopped on the formation lap, only for his door to fall off once Di Resta exited the car. Once the race got underway, it was red flagged after only a single lap when Daniel Juncadella's Aston Martin had a problem of its own. It was seen ablaze, parked by a marshall post.
Moments before, Nick Cassidy's guest appearance had come to a premature end when he made contact with Jonathan Aberdein's Audi on the exit of turn 6, sending the Lexus LC500 into the wall and out of the race.
After the interruption, Müller held off Rast on the restart to retain the lead, but was ultimately passed and also found himself behind his rival after the pitstops. The Swiss driver then put pressure on Rast, which paid off as Rast was seen sliding wide at turn 8, which allowed Müller to slip by and effectively retake the lead of the race. Rast was then also passed by Rockenfeller a lap later.
Jamie Green and Joel Eriksson then remarkably held off their pitstops until the end of the penultimate lap, but once they stopped, this allowed Müller, Rockenfeller, Rast and Timo Glock to slip by and take the top four spots in a very wet race. Green finished fifth and Eriksson sixth, ahead of Robin Frijns, Jake Dennis, Bruno Spengler and Loic Duval to complete the top ten.
Ferdinand von Habsburg was the only other R-Motorsport driver to make the finish, taking eleventh place. Marco Wittmann had to settle for twelfth after drive through penalty caused by an unsafe release. He finished ahead of Sheldon van der Linde, Philipp Eng and Pietro Fittipaldi.
Jenson Button was not able to repeat his strong performance from Saturday and finished in sixteenth, with Ronnie Quintarelli bringing the Motul Autech Nissan GT-R home in seventeenth.
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