Audi has finished behind Peugeot in the last warm up session preceding the Le Mans 24
Hours race from next month.
The French manufacturer managed to start it’s Peugeot 908 HDi-FAP from pole position and ended the 1000 Km endurance race at Spa-Francorchamps by securing the first two position on the podium, while the McNish-Capello-Kristensen team and their Audi R15 TDI finished third.
Audi called the race ‘abnormal’ after a power cut has brought the race to a temporary stop while towards the end of the competition Tom Kristensen had to stop and change his tires due to rain.
It looks like in this year’s Le Mans 24h race which will start on June 12, Peugeot will defend last year’s victory with a strong chance of winning again.
Audi press release :
Allan McNish gave himself a good warm-up to next month’s Le Mans 24
Hours when the Scotsman’s diesel-engined Audi finished third in an
abnormal 1,000km sportscar endurance race at Spa-Francorchamps today
(SUN).
Dumfries-born McNish, 40, started his Audi R15 TDI from sixth place
on the 49-car grid and along with co-drivers Dindo Capello (Italy) and
Tom Kristensen (Denmark) led convincingly before first a power cut and
then rain returned to thwart Audi’s bid for victory in a bizarre Le Mans
Series race.
“Rain fell just before the start and being on dry weather ‘slicks’,
made it extremely difficult on the slippery surface,” reflected McNish.
“The Audi team then made a good strategy call to pit me under a safety
car period and I led at the end of my stint.
“But then a power cut brought the race to a temporary stop, something
I’ve never previously experienced in my career, and then a further rain
shower late in the race prompted us to bring Tom [Kristensen] in to
change onto intermediate [part-treaded] tyres with 30mins remaining.
“Unfortunately it stopped raining soon afterwards, the track dried
and we lost second place with just four minutes to run. But in terms of
the performance, Audi can be pleased looking ahead to Le Mans which is
why we ran our cars in Le Mans specification unlike Peugeot who chose to
run in a higher downforce set-up more beneficial for Spa.”
The McNish/Capello/Kristensen Audi ultimately finished 86.215secs
behind the winning Peugeot of Sébastien Bourdais/Simon Pagenaud/Pedro
Lamy which had started from pole-position.
The Audi R15 TDI sportscar of Timo Bernhard (D)/Romain Dumas (F)/Mike
Rockenfeller (D) started from the front row and finished fifth. The
third “factory” Audi of Marcel Fässler (CH)/André Lotterer (D)/Benoît
Treluyer (F) had been due to begin the race from fifth position but lost
eight laps having repairs made in the pits after Lotterer spun off on
the warm-up lap after drizzle made the track surface treacherously
slippery. They recovered to finish 12th.
