Audi with good performance but lack of fortune
Ingolstadt/Silverstone, – The 6-hour race at Silverstone (Great Britain) in which the two Audi R18 TDI cars of Audi Sport Team Joest on positions two and seven were beaten below their performance potential was perfect advertising for the new FIA World Endurance Championship to be launched in 2012.
Quotes after the race
Marcel Fässler (Audi R18 TDI #1): “It was a great race. We pushed. Based on our pace we could have really been in contention for victory. The car was really good today. So it’s a real shame that I had two collisions in which the car was damaged. We simply lost too much time due to the repair.” Timo Bernhard (Audi R18 TDI #1): “I think we showed a nice race. Second place is good – but we had the potential for more. The performance was good enough for victory because we were battling for the lead across long stretches of the race. It wasn’t meant to be. We lost time in traffic as a result of me going into a spin once, Marcel (Fässer) had a collision that required a repair due to the regulations. Too bad, but I think we can still be satisfied. We delivered a good show today. And, most importantly, the team did a tremendous job of pulling together.” Tom Kristensen (Audi R18 TDI #2): “A really great race with four cars battling for every centimeter. Especially the early phase was tricky and when the #8 Peugeot got entangled in a collision things were looking very good for us. But then Allan (McNish) unfortunately had the issue and had to pit to have the front left suspension changed. The mechanics did a fantastic job in the pits repairing the damage. From then on we were six laps down trying to get home and helping our ‘sister’ car in any way we could. I feel very sorry that we weren’t all the way in front particularly for our crew. But you can be sure that next time, at Road Atlanta, we will battle for the big cigar again.” Allan McNish (Audi R18 TDI #2): “It’s a frustrating result considering our performance over the weekend. We had a good car in qualifying and a very good car at the beginning of the race. I had a fantastic battle with Sébastien Bourdais. Once I came a bit too close to the pit wall when I overtook him into turn 1. But I have to say it was a clean and fair fight. Unfortunately it ended too early when a Ferrari had taken a rather strange ‘line,’ damaging my left front suspension. That basically ended our race and also his as he was given a one-minute stop-and-go penalty. That put us down six laps and it was a recovery drive from then on. We learned a lot more here about the R18 TDI for Petit Le Mans and China but were taken out of the battle to win.” Ralf Jüttner (Technical Director Audi Sport Team Joest): “That was a real shame! We had the pace today. It would have been a nice battle through to the end. In the final analysis, we were lacking exactly the time we lost due to the repair. Collisions are simply inevitable in dense traffic in such a large field. The rules now require this kind of damage to be repaired. We tried to minimize the time loss. That also worked out because we did the driver and tire changes at the same time. But it still took more than a minute and that could simply not be made up. The other car showed a great recovery to position seven. Allan (McNish) and Tom (Kristensen) were very quick too but once you’ve lost six laps you’re no longer in contention. If you want to win against such strong competition you simply can’t afford anything. Nevertheless: I really want to thank the team. They did a superb job. The pit stops were a bit faster than those of Peugeot. Now we’re going to strike at Atlanta!” Results
ILMC LMP1 manufacturers standings after 5 of 7 rounds: ILMC LMP1 team standings after 5 of 7 rounds:
|