Audi Singapore Club

Audi remains in front: After the fourth of eight rounds, Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer continue to lead the standings – as they have ever since the season opener in April. In the German debut of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), Audi had to admit defeat for the first time in a 6-hour race this year. The Audi driver trio in car number ‘7’ had started from position three, maintained second place for a long time but in the end finished behind two Porsche sports prototypes. “In the hot temperatures of nearly 30 degrees Celsius we weren’t as competitive this time as we were at the beginning of the season,” André Lotterer said, summing up the race. His team-mate Marcel Fässler added: “The important thing was to maintain an advantage in the standings.” Following the fourth podium result in four races, Benoît Tréluyer said: “Even though we weren’t battling for victory for a change, we managed to clinch a podium and to score important points in the process.”

In the sister car, number ‘8,’ Lucas di Grassi (BR), Loïc Duval (F) and Oliver Jarvis (GB) showed a superb performance. In the last hour of the race, Di Grassi was battling for second place with Porsche driver Marc Lieb for a long time, but ultimately saw the checkered flag in position four.

“We’d have liked to have battled for victory in our home race in front of a large crowd as we did at the beginning of the season,” said Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. “But we had to accept that Porsche were stronger today. In the standings, our drivers have maintained a remarkable advantage. This means we can expect a thrilling second half of the season.”

Chris Reinke, Head of LMP at Audi Sport, added: “In Audi’s home round, we competed in front of an impressive crowd of fans. It was great to see how popular the LMP sports cars are in Germany. That was perfect advertising for the FIA WEC. For the remaining races, we’re going to leave no stone unturned to continue to optimally support our drivers in the battle for the WEC title. The title is far from having been decided.”

In three weeks from now, round five of the season is coming up. In the U.S. state of Texas, the FIA WEC will be held for the third time, on September 19 – Audi won both of the two previous rounds at Austin.

The race was bitter particularly for Mattias Ekström, who in the heaviest car in the field had shown an impressive performance. From grid position six, he immediately advanced to fifth place in the Red Bull Audi RS 5 DTM. However, his attempt to overtake the BMW of Timo Glock, who was running in fourth place, on lap eleven ended in a spectacular collision between the two and in retirement of the previous leader of the standings.

“Timo was starting to have problems and getting slower,” said Ekström. “I was already running side by side with him and didn’t expect him not to leave me any room. But apparently the going is now getting tougher in this stage of the championship.” Due to his retirement Ekström dropped to second place in the championship and before the second Moscow race on Sunday (start at 16.13, local time, from 15.00, CEST, live on ‘Das Erste’) is trailing Saturday’s winner Pascal Wehrlein (Mercedes-Benz) by eight points.

The best Audi driver on Saturday was Jamie Green in the Hoffmann Group Audi RS 5 DTM of Audi Sport Team Rosberg. After five races without points, the Briton finished in fourth place. Up to the last lap, he was fighting a duel for second place with title defender Marco Wittmann in his BMW. But in the last turn, he lost third place to Bruno Spengler.

A strong performance was shown by Edoardo Mortara as well. Following a difficult qualifying session, the Italian in the Castrol EDGE Audi RS 5 DTM of Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline advanced from position twelve on the grid to sixth place and, as a result, scored important points in the battle for the title. In the overall standings, he is trailing Wehrlein by 13 points in position three.

With Nico Müller (Audi Financial Services Audi RS 5 DTM) in ninth place and Mike Rockenfeller (Schaeffler Audi RS 5 DTM) from Audi Sport Team Phoenix in position ten, two other Audi drivers finished in the points. Antonio Giovinazzi, on making his DTM debut at the wheel of the AUTO TEST Audi RS 5 DTM, kept clear of all tussles and finished the race in 19th place.

Adrien Tambay already damaged his Playboy Audi RS 5 DTM in the starting stage and retired eight laps before the end of the race. Miguel Molina’s race in the Teufel Audi RS 5 DTM even ended as early as in turn one. The Spaniard spun because he wanted to avoid a collision and was subsequently hit hard by Christian Vietoris.

“Now, we have to prepare two heavily damaged cars overnight from scratch again,” said Dieter Gass, Head of DTM at Audi Sport. “The main thing is that both drivers are okay. The safety concept of the DTM proved its viability once more. Obviously, today’s results were disappointing for us on the whole because our cars were very fast in spite of the high performance weights. On the other hand, this gives rise to hope for race two tomorrow. We’ve seen how quickly the tide can turn in the DTM on several occasions this year.”

Following a wet free practice session in the morning, the 20-minute qualifying took place in sunshine on a dry track. “That’s why it was a bit of a journey into the unknown,” Green said after the thrilling time chase. “I didn’t drive a single lap on slicks this morning. My set-up wasn’t completely perfect yet for the dry track. I think my RS 5 DTM still has a lot more potential.”

Leader of the standings Mattias Ekström in the Red Bull Audi RS 5 DTM of Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline in position six was the second-best Audi driver in the first qualifying session. On the first set of tires, the Swede was even in position three. “Unfortunately, I didn’t catch a clear lap in my second outing,” the Audi driver said. “More would have been possible.”

Six Audi drivers in total made it into the top twelve of the first qualifying session. The strong performance by Antonio Giovinazzi was remarkable. In his DTM debut, in the heaviest car in the field, he took 19th place, outperforming an amazing number of five competitors – including two former DTM Champions.

The first of the two races at Moscow Raceway will start at 16.33, local time (from approx. 15.20, CEST, live on ‘Das Erste’).

On Saturday, the Audi drivers experienced a foretaste of the race on the 5.137-kilometer Grand Prix configuration of the tradition-steeped track. Other participants on the racing line and yellow flags prevented a better result of the Audi driver squads. Lucas di Grassi (BR) managed to set the best single time of an Audi driver (1m 37.413s). The Brazilian perceived the set-up of his race car as a step forward compared to the free practice. “But we’ve still got some work to do before the race,” said di Grassi. Together with his team-mate Oliver Jarvis he achieved an average time of 1m 37.476s.

The leaders of the standings, Marcel Fässler/André Lotterer/Benoît Tréluyer (CH/D/F), with their time of 1m 37.783s, are sharing the second row with their team-mates. Fässler drove three laps in qualifying. “On the first lap, the front tires weren’t warm enough, on the second lap, I lost time in traffic and on the third lap, the tires were already past their best performance,” the Swiss said. André Lotterer subsequently took over car number ‘7.’ “Unfortunately, due to yellow flags, I wasn’t able to make optimum use of the tires in their best state but had to lift,” said the German.

“Today, our drivers did not have optimum conditions on track,” said Chris Reinke, Head of LMP at Audi Sport. “But we also have to accept that on a fast lap in qualifying we can’t quite keep pace with our fiercest rivals. However, we’re going to give everything to be in contention across the six-hour distance in our home round on Sunday – as in the first two races of the season in the United Kingdom and in Belgium.”

“Due to our simulations we realized that we’d hardly be able to battle for the best time in qualifying,” said Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. “That’s why we already started to exclusively prepare for the race in the free practice sessions. We’re expecting a very tough sporting competition which the crowd at the FIA WEC’s German premiere can look forward to.”

The starting signal for the Nürburgring 6 Hours will be given on Sunday at 13.00. Eurosport will start to air live coverage of the final stage of the race on TV at 18.00. RTL will broadcast a summary of round four of the season on September 5, beginning at 13.35.

Qualifying results

1 Dumas/Jani/Lieb (Porsche) 1m 36.473s

2 Bernhard/Hartley/Webber (Porsche) 1m 36.542s

3 Di Grassi/Duval/Jarvis (Audi R18 e-tron quattro) 1m 37.476s

4 Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer (Audi R18 e-tron quattro) 1m 37.783s

5 Buemi/Davidson/Nakajima (Toyota) 1m 38.689s

6 Conway/Sarrazin/Wurz (Toyota) 1m 39.371s

7 Beche/Heidfeld/Prost (Rebellion) 1m 42.513s

8 Abt/Imperatori/Kraihamer (Rebellion) 1m 42.985s

9 Kaffer/Trummer (CLM-AER) 1m 44.886s

10 Bradley/Howson/Tandy (Oreca-Nissan) 1m 46.132s

The leader of the European Formula 3 Championship will be competing in the AUTO TEST Audi RS 5 DTM that is normally driven by Timo Scheider (D). The 2008 and 2009 DTM Champion has been excluded from the DTM event at Moscow by the sports court of the German Motorsport Association (DMSB).

Matching his year of birth, 1993, Giovinazzi, who hails from Martina Franca in southern Italy, will be driving car number ’93.’ The Italian had left a strong impression in an Audi Sport DTM evaluation of young drivers at the end of the past season and confirmed it in DTM tests at the Lausitzring in June.