Audi clinches 1-2 at Nurburgring 24 hours

Audi had a good day at the Nurburgring 24 hours as two of their cars took pole positions. The race was tough due to bad weather and there were tyre blowouts, pit stops and accidents galore. This endurance racing event is held on the Nordschleife (north loop) of the Nürburgring and has a lap length of over 25km.

Audi Sport Team Phoenix’s German drivers quartet of Marc Basseng, Christopher Haase, Frank Stippler and Markus Winkelhock finished first, having completed 155 laps. Team Mamerow Racing’s Christian Abt, Michael Ammermüller, Armin Hahne and Christian Mamerow claimed second, off the pace of the first team by 3.35 seconds

The Audi R8 LMS Ultra, successor to the R8 LMS is a race track specific car based on the R8. Sporting a 5.2-litre, V10 engine which has an output of 577ps, the body of the car is made of carbon fibre and aluminium, lowering the weight to 1250kg from the 1920kg of the road-going R8 coupe.

“That was an absolutely fantastic race and a great result for Audi. We’ve waited a long time for this victory – today is the day. It was an exciting race from start to finish. On one occasion our leading car became the innocent victim of an accident but we fought back again to the front to take a one-two finish. Really an exciting result for Audi,” said Dieter Gass, Head of Racing Commitments, Audi Sport.

Audi has achieved another milestone in endurance racing within the past eleven months; celebrating its tenth victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the R18 TDI LMP sports prototype in June 2011 and a customer racing R8 LMS winning the 24-hour classic at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, a first for Audi.

“It was a super weekend, the weather also played along. It was a massive show and a great atmosphere. The competition was very strong and the cars were at a high level. To be at the very top at the finish is obviously amazing because things didn’t run so sweetly to start. Qualifying wasn’t perfect and we weren’t so good in the opening hours. Today you saw just what can happen in 24 hours. The car was super, the drivers were well suited and the team did a great job,” said Markus Winkelhock, one of the drivers in car no 3 that won the race.