Disappointing Petit Le Mans for Audi

The 1,000-mile "Petit Le Mans" race at Road Atlanta (U.S. state of Georgia) was extremely disappointing for Audi. In the battle for the lead Romain Dumas in the Audi R18 TDI #1 on lap 297 became fautlessly entangled in an accident that forced him to retire. After several collisions, Audi Sport Team Joest took the second Audi R18 TDI out of the race early for safety reasons.

For seven hours the Audi fans had reason to hope for the brand with the four rings clinching victory at the prestigious US endurance classic. Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Marcel Fässler in the Audi R18 TDI designated as car number "1" fought some thrilling battles with the competition. It took Marcel Fässler only eight laps to bump the Peugeot that had started from the pole position from position one for the first time.

Although the Audi trio acted very cautiously in the extremely heavy traffic on the about 4.088-kilometer track and avoided body contact the three Audi drivers were able to achieve an advantage of a full lap over their immediate rivals some of the time. This advantage was destroyed when debris from another car lying on the track clogged one of the radiator ducts of the R18 TDI, which required an unscheduled pit stop. A 20-second stop-and-go penalty cost additional time.

Bernhard/Dumas/Fässler consistently stayed on the leading lap nevertheless and managed to close the gap to the leading Peugeot again with fast lap times. At the end of the seventh hour Romain Dumas launched a first attack against Franck Montagny during which there was some slight body contact in the chicane before the start and finish and the Audi driver lost five seconds. Only a few laps later Dumas caught up with the Peugeot again. When the Peugeot touched a GT vehicle Dumas at the start of the parallel straight was able to move alongside Montagny but was squeezed out by the Peugeot driver in the acceleration phase. While trying to avoid a collision with the Peugeot, Dumas brushed a GT vehicle and heavily hit the wall. That put a disappointing end to the race of the number "1" Audi R18 TDI which had been outstanding up to that point.

The sister car - number "2" - lost all chances of victory as early as in the starting phase. Tom Kristensen had two incidents of body contact with slower cars right at the beginning. The first one led to a puncture and a damaged hood. Later on, Allan McNish was hit in the rear by a GT vehicle. In addition to suspension and body parts, the clutch had to be exchanged which caused car number "2" to lose over an hour and drop back to a hopeless position. Because the various body contacts had also caused problems with the steering, Audi Sport Team Joest decided to take the car driven by Dindo Capello, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish out of the race after 302 laps for safety reasons.

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