Podium for Audi at ILMC finale in China
Ingolstadt/Zhuhai, – At the end of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC) Audi Sport Team Joest achieved another podium result with the Le Mans winning Audi R18 TDI at the season finale in China. Timo Bernhard and Marcel Fässler finished the 6-hour race at Zhuhai in third place. Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen in the “sister car” were forced to retire due to a collision in which they were not at fault.
One-two victory for the Audi R8 LMS in the GTC class
Quotes after the race
Timo Bernhard (Audi R18 TDI #1): “The pace definitely existed today – as had actually been the case at all the previous races. It’s a shame because on the first stint we took the lead and after the second one we were leading for about ten seconds. Unfortunately, in the second part of Marcel’s double-stint we had to note that the tires had heavily degraded. Exactly the time we lost at that point was the time we were lacking in the end. We weren’t able to make up for that any more as the competitiveness in the ILMC is too high to be able do so. I do think though that Marcel (Fässler) and I did a good job today. The pace was good, we always managed to get through the field in a nice, clean drive.” Marcel Fässler (Audi R18 TDI #1): “Basically speaking, this wasn’t my weekend, unfortunately, because I was struggling a bit here. The race had started well and Timo (Bernhard) did a good job. We were really competitive. Unfortunately, the performance of the tires dropped severely during my double-stint. On the last ten laps on this tire we simply lost too much time. That’s a shame because we’re not happy with third place, even though that was obviously the maximum we could achieve today.” Tom Kristensen (Audi R18 TDI #2): “A frustrating end for our ‘yellow’ car. Until today it’s been a perfect weekend. The tests in wet and dry conditions, the qualifying session – everything went according to plan or even better. From the start, Allan (McNish) and Timo (Bernhard) were running really fast. But when Allan was hit in the rear by the Rebellion car, the impact apparently caused a short circuit. We had to change the battery several times but that didn’t eliminate the problem. That was a shame because we were definitely quick enough to be able to win the race – and that was clearly our goal. It’s been a character-building year.” Allan McNish (Audi R18 TDI #2): “I think everyone in the team did an outstanding job. That’s why it’s so disappointing that we had to give up with our Audi R18 TDI. We had a really good pace, Tom (Kristensen) and I were both really pleased with the set-up. In addition, Tom drove a fantastic qualifying session. So we started into the race with a lot of self-confidence and a good feeling and immediately put pressure on our rivals from Peugeot and took the lead. Unfortunately, a GT car touched me as early as on the first stint, which meant we had to change the tail due to the regulations. But the real problem happened when I was hit in the rear by a prototype. That damaged the wiring and caused a short circuit in the car which couldn’t be repaired. I’m a little sad because I was confident that we’d be able to clinch victory here – and I wasn’t the only one in the team who had that opinion. In the future, Audi Sport will come back stronger than before, this much is sure.” Ralf Jüttner (Technical Director Audi Sport Team Joest): “The season finale of the ILMC was like the previous races of the season: It started really well and in the beginning we had the impression that we were quicker than our competitors. That changed after about two hours though. At the end of the second stint we lost a lot of time but our strategy had paid off up to that point. The Peugeot cars though apparently benefited from the increasing amount of pickup on the track. In these conditions they weren’t struggling quite as much with degrading tires as we were. For car number ‘2’ the race here at Zhuhai was a mirror image of the season as well. Allan (McNish) didn’t even notice the damage to the rear of his car after contact with the GT vehicle and in the second incident with the LMP vehicle he wasn’t able to do anything either. Afterward the race was over for Allan and Tom (Kristensen) due to a resulting electrical problem. I want to thank the team a lot for having shown outstanding morale here. All we can do now is look toward the future with optimism.” Results
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