European Le Mans
Audi UK Sport Saturday notes
The Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx R8s line-up in second and third positions on the 41-car grid for the fourth and final round of the Le Mans Endurance Series at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium on Sunday. Allan McNish claimed the British Audi team's ...
Published: Sep 12, 2004, 3:36 PM
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The Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx R8s line-up in second and third positions on the 41-car grid for the fourth and final round of the Le Mans Endurance Series at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium on Sunday.
Allan McNish claimed the British Audi team's fourth consecutive LMES front row start position with a 2min 06.002secs lap, an average speed of 123.80mph around the undulating 4.333-mile track. McNish's time was bettered by just 0.038secs by Nicolas Minassian (Zytek) with 16-minutes remaining in the 45-minute qualifying session.
Jamie Davies in the "sister" Veloqx Audi R8 stopped the clock at 2:06.139 in the second and final time trial, staged in warm and dry conditions, that was twice red-flagged.
The morning 45-minute qualifying session had begun on a wet track which steadily dried and was a battle throughout between Kaffer (2:13.818) and Davies (2:15.593) for the fastest time.
The 144-lap, 1,000km race which sees the Veloqx Audi squad bidding for the outright and LM P1 Driver's and Teams' inaugural LMES titles, is scheduled to begin at 1300hrs (CET).
Audi R8 - #8 (Qualified - 2nd, 2:06.002, 123.80mph - McNish)
Pierre Kaffer:
"We're on the front row so to be first or second for such a long race does not really matter. I had set the fastest time in the morning qualifying session. I started on wets and then changed to intermediates and at the end it was quite dry. I'm happy."
Allan McNish:
"I had another crack to improve my time after the second red flag but was inadvertently held up. It would have been nice to be on pole but in reality we have a very good car for the race. Everything has gone well for us so far but it only counts in the race."
Jamie Davies:
"On my first flying lap in the afternoon session I spun under braking for the 'bus-stop' and on my ultimate fastest lap, just before the second red flag interruption, I was held up badly and lost time. But we should be in good shape for the race which is what matters."
Johnny Herbert:
"When I took over from Jamie with 30 minutes to run, we made the decision to concentrate on our race set-up rather than get involved in a fight for pole. I'm still not totally happy - we have too much understeer - but we'll dial that out in the warm-up."
Sam Li, Team Principal:
"We completed the programme we'd set out to achieve for both cars even allowing for changeable weather conditions. Six hours around Spa will be tough. We have now started all of our six races from the front row - 4 LMES races, Sebring 12 Hours and Le Mans 24 Hours."
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