Mueller Takes Lights-to-Flag Win at Portimao

Nico Mueller won the second DTM race at Portimao in dominant fashion, scoring his first series win since November 2020.

Mueller started the race from pole position and held off a challenge from Gasser Racing Team’s Mirko Bortolotti on the opening lap.

Once Mueller kept the Italian behind he was able to pull out a gap.

Meanwhile, second place changed hand as Felipe Fraga’s No. 74 Red Bull AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 took the position from Bortolotti on the second lap.

Mueller remained out front after the mandatory round of stops and kept Fraga at bay, scoring his first win of the season.

The Audi factory driver hadn’t won a race since the penultimate round of the 2020 season and returned to the podium for the first time since the Monza season opener in June oflast year.

Marco Wittmann came home in fourth, with reigning champion Maximilian Götz completing the top five.

The German had to withstand pressure from the No. 3 Abt Sportsline Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Kelvin van der Linde in the closing laps of the race.

Van der Linde, however, proved unable to surpass Götz and finished the race in sixth.

Laurens Vanthoor scored his best finish in DTM with seventh place after coming home in eighth the day before.

The Belgian secured the position by moving his No. 92 SSR Performance Porsche 911 GT3 R past Schubert Motorsport’s Sheldon van der Linde in the second half of the race.

Van der Linde remained ahead of Ricardo Feller to finish eighth, with Maro Engel completing the top ten.

Dennis Olsen just missed out on a points finish in 11th place, ahead of Rene Rast ad Arjun Maini.

David Schumacher completed the top 15, being one of the last drivers to make his mandatory pitstop. 

A pair of separate but simultaneous turn one incidents took out six cars, with Mikael Grenier, Luca Stolz, Thomas Preining, Nicki Thiim, Rolf Ineichen and Philipp Eng all retiring.

RESULTS: Race 2