gaijin

Ingolstadt, 19 June 2005




Audi wins Le Mans for the fifth time


Class-win for Audi at the Spa 12 Hours
Tommy Kristoffersson fifth at Anderstorp
First victory of the season for SEAT in BTCC

Audi wins Le Mans for the fifth time

Le Mans: For the fifth time in six years, the Audi R8 has won the Le Mans 24 Hours. In front of a record crowd of 230,000 spectators, Tom Kristensen, JJ Lehto and Marco Werner won the race with Team ADT Champion Racing\â€^TMs R8. The squad of Dave Maraj was the first American team to win Le Mans since 1967. With his seventh victory at the French endurance classic, Tom Kristensen has written Le Mans history: The Audi \"works\" driver has become the most successful Le Mans driver ever. Frank Biela, Allan McNish and Emanuele Pirro came home in third position with the second \"American\" R8. Jean-Marc Gounon, Franck Montagny and Stéphane Ortelli secured fourth position for Audi PlayStation Team ORECA.

Class-win for Audi at the Spa 12 Hours

BTCS: The new Audi A4 BTCS of the Belgian Audi Club had a successful race debut at the Spa-Francorchamps 12 Hours in Belgium. After 253 laps on the circuit in the Ardennes, Jean-Francois Hemroulle, Tim Verbergt and Franz Dubois finished third overall winning the class for Silhouette Touring Cars. 67 cars had started the race.

Tommy Kristoffersson fifth at Anderstorp

STCC: Tommy Kristoffersson finished fifth in round three of the Swedish Touring Car Championship (BTCC) being the best placed Audi driver for the first time this season. However, the Swede, who is both Team director and driver, was not completely satisfied: Fredrik Ekblom, who had come to Anderstorp in fourth position overall, was sent into the gravel at the start of the final race. He finished only tenth. The 2003 STCC champion dropped from 4th to 6th in the Championship classification.

News from the Audi brand group

First victory of the season for SEAT in BTCC

BTCC: SEAT had good reasons to celebrate after the fourth race meeting of the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC): Jason Plato qualified his SEAT Toledo Cupra in pole-position and won the first of three races. Following contact with a competitor and subsequent drive through penalty and a visit in to the gravel in the second race, Jason eventually finished 10th. In race 3, which was marked by a thunderstorm and heavy rain, Plato missed a braking point and slid to 8th position before recovering to 3rd and another podium finish.

Results and points

Le Mans 24 Hours (F), 18/19 June
1 Kristensen/Lehto/Werner (Audi R8) 370 laps in 24h 01m 30.901s
2 Collard/Boullion/Comas (Pescarolo-Judd) - 2 laps
3 Biela/McNish/Pirro (Audi R8) - 6 laps
4 Gounon/Montagny/Ortelli (Audi R8) - 8 laps
5 Gavin/Beretta/Magnussen (Chevrolet) - 21 laps

Anderstorp (S), 19 June, Swedish Touring Car Championship (STCC) rund 3
1 Edward Sandström (Volvo) 12 laps in 20m 37.255s
2 Johan Stureson (Peugeot) + 4.535s
3 Thed Björk (BMW) + 8.975s
4 Daniel Haglöf (BMW) + 10.822s
5 Tommy Kristoffersson (Audi A4 STCC) + 10.987s
...
10 Fredrik Ekblom (Audi A4 STCC) + 24.837s
Positions after 3 of 8 rounds: 1 Björk, 52 points; 2 Sandström, 45; 3 Stureson, 44; 4 Engström, 35; 5 Göransson, 29; 6 Ekblom, 26; ... 9 Kristoffersson, 17.
Next race: Falkenberg (S), 10 July

Spa-Francorchamps 24 Hours (B), 19 June, Belgian Touring Car Series (BTCS)
round 3
1 Bouvy/Loix/Menten (Porsche) 253 laps in 12h 01m 52.329s
2 Nef/Delcour/Deman (Porsche) - 5 laps
3 Hemroulle/Verbergt/Dubois (Audi A4 BTCS) - 7 laps
4 Chaillet/Haouza (Porsche) - 7 laps
5 Thiry/Radermecker/Bouche (Jaguar) - 7 laps
Next race: Spa-Francorchamps (B), 9 July

Oulton Park (GB), 19 June, British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) round 10
1 Jason Plato (SEAT Toledo Cupra) 15 laps in 22m 35.695s
2 Matt Neal (Honda) + 0.284s
3 Dan Eaves (Honda) + 3.366s
4 Yvan Muller (Vauxhall) + 4.672s
5 Tom Chilton (Honda) + 7.184s
...
7 Luke Hines (SEAT Toledo Cupra) + 11.959s
9 James Pickford (SEAT Toledo Cupra) + 14.657s
Oulton Park (GB), 19 June, British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) round 11
1 Matt Neal (Honda) 15 laps in 22m 40.170s
2 Yvan Muller (Vauxhall) + 0.503s
3 Dan Eaves (Honda) + 2.568s
4 Rob Collard (MG ZS) + 3.379s
5 Tom Chilton (Honda) + 5.422s
...
7 James Pickford (SEAT Toledo Cupra) + 18.551s
10 Jason Plato (SEAT Toledo Cupra) + 1m 18.694s
Oulton Park (GB), 19 June, British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) round 12
1 Tom Chilton (Honda) 18 laps in 33m 51.624s
2 Matt Neal (Honda) + 2.737s
3 Jason Plato (SEAT Toledo Cupra) + 5.640s
4 Rob Collard (MG ZS) + 11.160s
5 Luke Hines (SEAT Toledo Cupra) + 14.421s
...
7 James Pickford (SEAT Toledo Cupra) + 23.774s
Positions after 12 of 30 rounds: 1 Neal, 152; 2 Eaves, 128; 3 Muller, 119; 4 Plato, 104; 5 Collard, 65; 6 Turkington, 64; 7 Chilton, 46; 8 Pickford, 43; 9 Hines, 35.
Next race: Croft (GB), 17 July

Coming up next week

DTM press conference in Hannover with Audi factory driver Christian Abt (Tuesday, 12 a.m.) ... DTM round 5 at Oschersleben (Sunday) ... FIA World Touring Car Championship rounds 9 and 10 at Puebla (Sunday) ... German SEAT Leon Supercopa rounds 7 and 8 at Oschersleben (Saturday/Sunday) ... FIA GT Championship round 5 at Brno (Sunday) ...



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