- Strong showing by the Le Mans winners in ILMC finale at Zhuhai
- Controversial final phase costs Audi a possible victory
- Second and third place for Audi Sport Team Joest
Audi Sport Team Joest thrilled the fans on its first showing in China with a fantastic season finale of the sports prototypes at Zhuhai. However, a controversial final phase deprived Audi of the victory the brand would have actually deserved.
During the entire 1000-kilometer race Tom Kristensen/Allan McNish and Dindo Capello/Romain Dumas at the wheel of the two Audi R15 TDI cars fought a fascinating duel with the two Peugeot 908 cars. One hour before the end, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish were clearly leading the race when the only safety car period caused their advantage to shrink from over 30 to 13.5 seconds.
Continue reading ‘Audi R15 TDI thrills fans in China, Takes 2nd place’
October 15, 2010 - Published By Josh -
in ILMC.
- Peugeot looks to win 3rd consecutive race
- 1000KM of Zhuhai to be televised by Speed TV in the USA
- Porsche and Ferrari battle for title in GT2 class
After the press conference on the 18th of September 2010 on the Zhuhai circuit with Rémy Brouard, CEO of the l’Automobile Club de l’Ouest, the preparations for the third and final event of the first Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (5th – 7th November) are accelerating.
Continue reading ‘Preparations for the 1000km of Zhuhai accelerate’
- Timo Bernhard and Dindo Capello in third place
- Early race end for Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish
- First technical defect in more than four years
Ingolstadt/Silverstone, September 12, 2010 – Audi started into the new Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC) with a podium result. In the 1000-kilometer race at Silverstone (Great Britain) Timo Bernhard and Dindo Capello in the Audi R15 TDI occupied third place.
A differential failure on the sister car driven by Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish after just 15 of the 170 laps prevented a better result after the strong qualifying performance with grid positions one and two. In front of a crowd of 40,000 spectators McNish had taken the lead after starting from the pole position and fought a spectacular duel with the subsequent winner Anthony Davidson in the Peugeot in the early phase before the R15 TDI designated as car number “7″ started to coast on the track without drive. It was the first retirement due to a technical failure since the launch of the R15 project and the first for Audi Sport Team Joest in more than four years.
The unusual defect on the differential, which will be carefully examined in the next few days at Audi Sport in Ingolstadt, affected the race of Timo Bernhard and Dindo Capello as well. Because the team did not want to take any risks with the tire strategy with one remaining car the tires of the second R15 TDI were changed at the first refueling stop to be on the safe side. This caused Bernhard/Capello to lose contact with the leading Peugeot that was driving two stints on one set of tires from the outset.
In addition, unusually heavy understeer caused the gap to the leading Peugeot to increase to slightly more than one minute by the end of the first half of the race. In the second half Bernhard/Capello were able to keep the pace of the front runners and to even reduce the gap to about 50 seconds. However, an additional refueling stop three laps before the finish locked third place of the German-Italion duo in concrete.
Continue reading ‘Audi R15 TDI on the podium at Silverstone’
- Audi R15 TDI sets the pace at Silverstone
- First event with new aerodynamics version
- Allan McNish clinches first pole position for the R15 TDI
Ingolstadt/Silverstone, September 11, 2010 – Audi has written a small chapter of motorsport history by securing the first ever pole position in the new Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC). Both Audi R15 TDI cars will start into the 1000-kilometer race at Silverstone (Great Britain) from the front row.
At the Le Mans 24 Hours Audi triumphed in June primarily due to the reliability and efficiency of the Audi R15 TDI. At the inaugural round of the new worldwide sports car racing series at Silverstone the innovative diesel race sports car from Ingolstadt has been setting the pace so far as well: after posting fastest times in two of the three free practice sessions Allan McNish and Timo Bernhard clinched the two top grid positions in qualifying on Saturday afternoon.
Audi last started from the top grid position in a sports car race more than two years ago. For the Audi R15 TDI which has already won three races this marked the first pole position in its seventh racing commitment, for Allan McNish the first since Sebring in 2008.
Continue reading ‘Both Audi R15 TDIs on the front row at the inaugural Intercontinental Le Mans Cup race’
- Inaugural event of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC)
- Two Audi R15 TDI cars to contest the 1000-km race at Silverstone
- Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish to spearhead the squad
Ingolstadt, September 3, 2010 – The 1000-kilometer race at Silverstone (Great Britain) on September 12 marks the beginning of a new era for Audi and the sports car scene: for the first time since 1992, there will be a worldwide racing series for Le Mans prototypes again. Audi Sport Team Joest will contest the series with two R15 TDI cars.
Silverstone, Road Atlanta, Zhuhai – three races in three different continents at the end of the 2010 sports car season will give sports car fans a foretaste of the year 2011. Next year, a total of seven endurance races are planned for the so called "Intercontinental Le Mans Cup” (ILMC).
47 vehicles have been entered in the ILMC inaugural race at Silverstone, as many as twelve of them in the top class, LMP1, whose "king” has traditionally been the Le Mans winner. This year it was the Audi R15 TDI which is powered by a V10 TDI engine delivering about 440 kW and – as is typical for Audi – features numerous innovative technical details.
Continue reading 'The Intercontinental Le Mans Cup marks the beginning of a new era for the Audi R15 TDI'
