gaijin

Ingolstadt, 17 April 2005




Audi Motorsport Newsletter 2/2005


Lehto/Werner also win at Road Atlanta
Audi A4 DTM takes pole-position at its debut race
DTM Presentation at Frankfurt/Oder
First race for â€oeFrench” Audi R8 ends prematurely



Lehto/Werner also win at Road Atlanta

ALMS: JJ Lehto and Marco Werner, driving Team ADT Champion Racing´s Audi R8, also won the second round of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) thus increasing their overall series lead. Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro finished in third place in the "sister” car despite losing two laps due to a broken wheel. JJ Lehto and Marco Werner had to serve a stop-and-go penalty because a wheel rolled into the pit-lane during a tyre change. Only 30 minutes from the end of the race did the Finnish-German take the lead from the Lola that had been leading until this moment. It was the 54th victory for the Audi R8 in its 65th race.

Audi A4 DTM takes pole-position at its debut race

DTM: Reigning champion Mattias Ekström captured pole-position with the new Audi A4 DTM on its debut in the DTM. At Hockenheim, Tom Kristensen and Martin Tomczyk also showed the potential of the new Audi setting fastest times in the test and free practice sessions. In the race, both retired after collisions on the start lap. Mattias Ekström was fighting a thrilling duel with Gary Paffett for several laps. The lead alternated between these two several times before Ekström â€" following his first pit stop â€" lost a lot of time behind slower cars to ultimately finish the race in fifth place. Best placed Audi driver was Christian Abt in last year´s A4 DTM, who â€" after a starting collision, in which he was not at fault, that sent him into a spin, fought his way up from 16th to fourth place

DTM Presentation at Frankfurt/Oder

DTM: DTM fans get to see a very special presentation at Frankfurt/Oder next Saturday (April 23). Prior to the DTM race at EuroSpeedway (May 1), DTM cars will cross the bridge over the River Oder into Poland´s town Slubice. Fans can expect demonstration runs of the DTM cars, a paddock, a show stage and an autograph session. Pierre Kaffer will be in action for Audi with the new Audi A4 DTM race taxi.

First race for "French” Audi R8 ends prematurely

LMES: Audi PlayStation Team Oreca´s dress rehearsal for the Le Mans 24 Hours ended prematurely in the 1000-kilometre race at Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium): One hour before the end Jean-Marc Gounon spun off the track into the wall during a Safety-car period. Starting from fourth position, Gounon and Stéphane Ortelli temporarily took the lead in extremely difficult weather conditions including rain and fog and were running second at the time of the accident at the "Bus-stop” chicane behind the eventual winner.

News from the Audi brand group

Successful DTM premiere for the SEAT Supercopa

Supercopa: The first appearance of the SEAT Leon Supercopa at a DTM event was a big success. 116,000 spectators witnessed two exciting races at Hockenheim. 19-year-old Marcus Steinel on Saturday and 41-year-old Thomas Marschall on Sunday took the victories giving the "young guns” and the experienced drivers one victory each.

Results and points

Road Atlanta (USA), 17 April, American Le Mans Series (ALMS) round 2
1 JJ Lehto/Marco Werner (Audi R8) 112 laps in 2hrs 45m 27.420s
2 Chris Dyson/Andy Wallace (Lola-AER) + 44.785s
3 Frank Biela/Emanuele Pirro (Audi R8) - 1 lap
4 Chris Field/John Field (Lola-AER) - 4 laps
5 Ron Fellows/Johnny O´Connell (Chevrolet) - 4 laps
Positions after 2 of 10 rounds: 1 Lehto and Werner, 46 points; 3 Biela, Pirro and Wallace, 35.
Next race: Mid-Ohio (USA), May 22

Hockenheim (D), 17 April, DTM round 1
1 Jean Alesi (Mercedes) 37 laps in 1hrs 04m 48,245s
2 Gary Paffett (Mercedes) + 5.643s
3 Bernd Schneider (Mercedes) + 6.420s
4 Christian Abt (Audi A4 DTM) + 8.955s
5 Mattias Ekström (Audi A4 DTM) + 12.937s
...
10 Frank Stippler (Audi A4 DTM) + 28.002s
11 Allan McNish (Audi A4 DTM) + 36.232s
13 Pierre Kaffer (Audi A4 DTM) - 9 laps
Positions after 1 of 11 rounds: 1 Alesi, 10 points; 2 Paffett, 8; 3 Schneider, 6; 4 Abt, 5; 5 Ekström, 4.
Next race: EuroSpeedway (D), May 1

Spa-Francorchamps (B), 17 April, Le Mans Endurance Series (LMES) round 1
1 Hayanari Shimoda/John Nielsen/Casper Elgaard (Zytek) 132 laps in 6hrs 00m 48.389s
2 Jean-Christophe Bouillon/Emmanuel Collard/Erik Comas (Pescarolo) - 1 lap
3 Martin Short/Rob Barff/Vanina Ickx (Dallara-Judd) - 5 lap
4 Ryo Michigami/Juichi Wasikaka/Seiji Ara (Dome-Mugen) - 6 lap
5 Bob Berridge/Gareth Evans/Peter Owen (Lola-AER) - 8 lap
Positions after 1 of 5 rounds: 1 Shimoda, Nielsen and Elgaard, 10 points; 2 Bouillon, Nielsen and Elgaard, 8; 3 Short, Barff and Ickx, 6; 4 Michigami, Wasikaka and Ara, 5; 5 Berridge, Evans and Owen, 4.
Next race: Monza, 10 July

Hockenheim (D), 16 April, SEAT Leon Supercopa round 1
1 Marcus Steinel (SEAT Leon) 14 laps in 27m 17.218s
2 Thomas MĂĽhlenz (SEAT Leon) + 0.465s
3 Thomas Marschall (SEAT Leon) + 1.407s
4 Florian Gruber (SEAT Leon) + 4.177s
5 Bastian Kolmsee (SEAT Leon) + 12.277s
Hockenheim (D), 17 April, SEAT Leon Supercopa round 1
1 Thomas Marschall (SEAT Leon) 14 laps 31m 06.684s
2 Florian Gruber (SEAT Leon) + 1.516s
3 Sebastian Stahl (SEAT Leon) + 1.742s
4 Daniel Bauer (SEAT Leon) + 3.278s
5 Jarkko Venäläinen (SEAT Leon) + 5.203s
Positions after 2 of 16 rounds: 1 Marschall, 34 points; 2 Gruber, 30; 3 Steinel, 21; 4. Stahl, 18; 5 MĂĽhlenz, 17.
Next race: EuroSpeedway (D), 30 April

Coming up next week

DTM press conference in the city hall of Frankfurt/Oder (Saturday, 11 a.m.) with later demonstration and taxi runs with Pierre Kaffer in the Audi A4 DTM race taxi ... Frank Stippler will drive a 1985 Audi S1 Sport quattro S1 at the historical "Langenburg Classic” hillclimb in Germany (Sunday) ... Rounds 3 and 4 of the Belgian Touring Car Series at Dijon/France (Sunday) ...



Communication Motorsport
Telephone +49 (0)841 89 34200, motorsport-media@audi.de

Krisko

How were the CBS ratings for the race?

Taner Halicioglu

Some people might not get around to watching the race until a couple of days after - thanks to Tivo ;-)

Please keep that in mind for future posting.

-Taner