Audi newsletter 2010-05-09

Turbulent Le Mans dress rehearsal for Audi

LMS: The Le Mans dress rehearsal at Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium) was turbulent. The traditional 1000-kilometer race had to be suspended for almost 40 minutes just before half-distance due to a power cut. In addition, rain showers made conditions extremely difficult and caused numerous incidents. Dindo Capello, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish led in their Audi R15 TDI for many laps, but had to settle for third place following an unlucky tire call during the closing stages.

One-two at Vallelunga

GT3 Italy: Filipe Albuquerque and Marco Bonanomi gave the Audi Sport Italia Audi R8 LMS its first victory of the season on the second weekend of the Italian GT Championship. Albuquerque took the lead on the first lap of Saturday's race, partner Bonanomi later cemented victory with an advantage of 28 seconds. Richard Antinucci and Gian Luca Giraudi made the Audi one-two finish perfect with second place. In the second race pole sitter Bonanomi relinquished the lead on the first lap, Albuquerque and Bonanomi nevertheless finished the race in second position and are now second in the championship standings.

First victory of the season in Germany for R8 LMS

ADAC GT Masters: Celebrations for Christopher Mies and Luca Ludwig. After the two drivers in the team ABT Sportsline Audi R8 LMS had led Saturday's ADAC GT Masters race around the Sachsenring for many laps and were only bumped down to second during the closing stages, they scored the first victory of the season for an Audi R8 LMS in Germany in the second race. As a result they presented their Team Boss Christian Abt with a belated birtday present. Second best Audi drivers at the Sachsenring were Jimmy Johansson and Heiko Hammel whoe collected sixth and seventh in the Pole Promotion team's Audi R8 LMS.

Audi drivers in the points

GT3 France: In the French GT Championship at Dijon the Audi teams failed to emulate the results of the first two race weekends. In cool, but dry conditions Stephane Lemeret and Greg Franchi in the W-Racing Team Audi R8 LMS could not exploit their second position on the grid in the first race and finished sixth. In the second race Marc Sourd and Dino Lunardi finished seventh as best R8 LMS drivers. The Oreca R8 with Bruno Hernandez and Soheil Ayari had to visit the pits for a stop-and-go penalty due to a jump start and were classified ninth.

Podium position for Kevin Engman

JTCC: Good season opener for the 19-year old Swede Kevin Engman in the Swedish Junior Touring Car Championship (JTCC). Engman, who competes in his Audi A3 for the junior team of DTM star Mattias Ekstrom, finished third in the second race in the season opener at Knutstorp after retiring from the sprint race.

News bits

DTM Champion Timo Scheider competes for the first time in the 24 Hours of Le Mans on 12 / 13 June. The Audi factory driver received permission to drive a Porsche 911 GT3 RSR together with Marco Holzer and Richard Westbrook ... Former Formula 1 driver Mark Blundell celebrates a comeback: The Briton contests the 24-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps in an Audi R8 LMS entered by United Autosports... A total of seven Audi R8 LMS start the 24-hour race at the Nurburgring this coming weekend.

Coming up next week
May 13-16: 24 Hours Nurburgring (D)

-source: audi