Disappointing Petit Le Mans for Audi

The experienced trio in Audi #2 lost all chances of victory as early as in the starting phase. Tom Kristensen had two unfortunate 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.

"I'm extremely disappointed. I feel particularly sorry for everyone in the Audi team who worked incredibly hard. We had several incidents with our car right in the beginning, which caused us to lose some ground. The clutch change hit us particularly hard. The mechanics did a great job in that case too that went unrewarded. I think it must have been fantastic watching these races - at least over longer stretches. But some of the incidents were a bit much from my perspective. We need to think about what can be improved in this respect in the future," says Tom K.

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. However, in the battle for the lead Romain Dumas on lap 297 became faultlessly entangled in an accident that forced him to retire.

The final round of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup will be the 6 Hours of Zhuhai. The race will take place on the 13th November.