Audi newsletter 2010-06-06

Mike Rockenfeller is best Audi driver

DTM: Mike Rockenfeller was the best Audi driver at the third DTM round at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz. The 26-year-old driver from Audi Sport Team Phoenix clinched fourth place in front of 79,000 spectators. In addition, "Rocky" shone by setting the absolutely fastest race lap. Afterwards, he immediately traveled to the 24-hour race at Le Mans. Valencia winner Mattias Ekstrom, who had started into the race from position three, was hit in the rear by Alexandre Premat and forced into a spin shortly after the start. David Coulthard in the next car was not able to avoid a collision. In the impact Ekstrom's A4 was so heavily damaged that the Swede was forced to retire in the pits.

Two podium places in Italy

GT3 Italy: The Audi R8 LMS achieved two podium positions on the third race weekend of the Italian GT Championship. The Portuguese Filipe Albuquerque and his Italian team colleague from Audi Sport Italia, Marco Bonanomi, initially had the lead. In the first of two rounds at Magione they secured third place. In the second race, the duo took fourth. In this round, their team-mate Gianluca Giraudi and his team colleague Richard Antinucci, who was standing in for Dindo Capello, managed to clinch a podium in the Audi R8 LMS by finishing the race in third place.

Second place thanks to clever strategy

Belcar: Anthony Kumpen and Greg Franchi achieved second place in round two of the Belcar Endurance Series on the tradition-steeped circuit of Spa-Francorchamps. The Belgian duo profited from a clever strategy of the new W-Racing Team (WRT), which took advantage of a safety car period to change drivers. Francois Verbist and Bert Longin in their R8 LMS still manage to finish in fifth place despite a puncture.

Victory on second GT weekend in Spain

GT3 Spain: The two Portuguese drivers Cesar Campanico and João Pedro Figueiredo celebrated a victory in the GTS class on the second race weekend of the Spanish GT Championship. In round 2 the duo overtook the Porsche driven by Lappalainen/Palttala that had been leading up to that point just before race end. In round one, Campanico/Figueiredo had taken fourth place.

News bits

The former Swedish Formula 1 driver Stefan Johansson contests the Spa-Francorchamps 24 Hours in an Audi R8 LMS of the United Autosports team ...On July 24, Audi "factory" driver Alexandre Premat will marry his partner of many years, Cleo.

Coming up next week

June 7 - 13: Le Mans 24 Hours (F)
June 12: Endurance Championship Nurburgring (D)

-source: audi