Audi newsletter 2010-04-27

Disappointing start into DTM season for Audi

DTM: The 2010 DTM season opener did not go according to plan for title defender Audi. After three successive triumphs the brand with the four rings had to settle for places five to eight. The best Audi driver was Mike Rockenfeller who took fifth place in his first race for Audi Sport Team Phoenix. Mattias Ekstrom finished in sixth place although he had to come in for an additional pit stop due to a previous team error. Martin Tomczyk had a blown tire while leading the race. Alexandre Premat suffered the same misfortune.

Tom Kristensen fit for Spa

Le Mans: Audi Sport Team Joest successfully completed a 30-hour endurance test with the Audi R15 TDI for the Le Mans 24 Hours. The test was successful as well for Le Mans record winner Tom Kristensen whose foot injury has heeled to the point of enabling the Dane to compete again as early as in the 1000-kilometer race at Spa-Francorchamps on May 9.

First win of the season for the Audi R8 LMS

GT3 France: Bruno Hernandez and Soheil Ayari clinched the first victory of the season for the Audi R8 LMS at Ledenon. In the first of two races of the French GT Championship the duo from the Audi Team Oreca commandingly prevailed against two Ferraris. In the second race Hernandez/Ayari again mounted the podium thanks to their third-place finish. The best Audi team in the second race was their team colleagues Stephane Ortelli and David Halliday.

Two podium places in Italy

GT3 Italy: The team of Audi Sport Italia started into the Italian GT Championship at Misano with two podium positions. Filipe Albuquerque and Marco Bonanomi in their Audi R8 LMS finished the night race on Saturday as the runners-up in front of their team colleagues Dindo Capello and Gianluca Giraudi. In the second round on Sunday Bonanomi was "kicked off" in a hairpin as early as on the first lap. Dindo Capello was struggling with the engine stalling on the final laps and finished the race in fifth place.

Successful race experience debut

VLN: The new Audi race experience that offers customers the opportunity to book racing commitments with the Audi R8 LMS had a successful debut. In the first run during the VLN Endurance Championship at the Nurburgring the two vehicles of Audi race experience Team Joest with Florian Gruber/Alfred Wolfsgruber/Peter Wyss and Wolfgang Dess/Jochen Übler/Marco Werner clinched places four to six in the SP9 class for GT3 vehicles. The enthusiasm for the Audi R8 LMS was overshadowed by a tragic accident of another competitor which resulted in the race being stopped early.

Withdrawal for safety reasons

VLN: Teams ABT Sportsline and Phoenix Racing took their total of Audi R8 LMS cars out of the race at the third round of the VLN Endurance Championship at the Nurburgring after a series of tire failures on the rear axle for safety reasons. In collaboration with the tire partner concerned Audi Sport's Customer Service Center will carefully analyze the cause of the tire failures and develop a recommendation for procedures to be followed at future races on the Nurburgring-Nordschleife - not only but also with respect to the upcoming Nurburgring 24 Hours.

News bits

In the world's biggest Audi center, United Autosports will present its R8 LMS team for the FIA GT3 European Championship in London on Tuesday ... Audi Representative Frank Biela took second place in the "Legend Cup" as a guest entrant in the inaugural race of the Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup at Hockenheim ... Since Friday the Audi Sport iPhone App has been available for free downloading from Apple's iTunes Store.

Coming up next week

April 30 - May 02: FIA GT3 European Championship Silverstone (GB)
April 30 - May 02: International GT Open Nurburgring (D)

-source: audi