Audi achieves top results in Asia, America, and Germany

Audi R8 LMS GT3

Strong performances in the rain in Asia and the USA: For the second time this year, Team B-Quik Absolute Racing secured overall victory in the Thailand Super Series. The racing series traveled to Malaysia for its third event. In Sunday’s race, chaotic weather conditions meant that quick decisions were required. Malaysian driver Akash Nandy started in seventh place and had improved to fourth when a safety car phase followed. Subsequently, the team’s Audi R8 LMS had to stay in the pits for 27 seconds longer than usual due to regulations in order to compensate for the driving advantage of its bronze-silver driver pairing. Nandy’s Thai teammate Adisak Tangphuncharoen took over the cockpit during the stop. He returned to the track behind Haziq Oh, who was driving the team’s sister car. With 20 minutes remaining in the race, an unexpected heavy downpour surprised the teams. B-Quik Absolute Racing called both Audi cars into the pits to switch from slicks to rain tires. They returned to the race in third and fourth place. The two competitors at the front remained on dry tires. When both skidded into the gravel trap, the safety car had to be deployed again. Then it began to dry out, threatening to negate the strategic advantage of the tire change. After the race was restarted, both Audi cars nevertheless overtook their competitors in thrilling maneuvers. Akash Nandy thus secured his second victory of the season after his previous success in Bangsaen and his first with teammate Adisak Tangphuncharoen. Haziq Oh and Aaron Lim followed in the second Audi, just under eight-tenths of a second behind. The Malaysian driver pairing thus won the GT3 amateur classification, as they had done in the first race on Saturday. Audi Sport customer racing achieved another victory in America. In the sixth race of the GT America powered by AWS series, Team SKI Autosports secured its second victory of the season with the Audi R8 LMS. After heavy rain before the start of the race, the field started behind the safety car at Road America. Memo Gidley mastered the conditions best at the wheel of the German GT3 sports car in the first race. Several competitors, on the other hand, triggered a safety car phase and ultimately the red flag due to spins and accidents. After only eleven laps counted, Gidley’s lead was 4.1 seconds. In the second race, the Audi privateer started from pole position, but an opponent attacked him in the first corner. The Audi spun, fell to the back of the field, and forced Gidley to fight his way back up. He then won an intense battle for second place with BMW driver Justin Rothberg and ultimately achieved a consolation result. The Land-Motorsport team celebrated its first podium finish in the 2025 DTM season. On the fifth race weekend at the Nürburgring, Ricardo Feller staged a convincing comeback. The Swiss driver started Saturday’s race in eleventh place. Right from the start, he worked his way up to seventh position. He was the first driver to complete his mandatory pit stop and was then able to make up a lot of time on the open track. He also had warm tires with good grip. This was a clear advantage at a time when Ferrari driver Jack Aitken returned to the track with cold tires at the end of the pit stop phase. Feller overtook the Briton and led for five laps. This was followed by lap-long battles for position until the Audi privateer finally had to admit defeat and crossed the finish line behind Aitken and his teammate Ben Green. As the only Audi R8 LMS driver in the field, he was nevertheless proud of his first podium finish of the season. At the same time, the Audi R8 LMS, which Ricardo Feller had driven for ABT Sportsline in the DTM in recent years, made a guest appearance in Norway. The Gjerdrum Racing team entered this race car in the fourth round of the Racing NM club racing championship in the mixed GT+, GT1, and GT3 class. On the Rudskogen circuit, 18-year-old Emil Gjerdrum finished second in the first two races, beaten by just a few tenths of a second. He won the third race with a 13-second lead.

Audi RS 3 LMS (TCR)

Touring car successes in Germany and China: In the sixth round of the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie, the Audi RS 3 LMS achieved three podium finishes in different classes. The Goroyan Racing Team by sharky-racing was the most successful in the TCR category. Danny Brink/Artur Goroyan/Oleg Kvitka/Roman Mavlanov won their category with a one-lap lead. The Max Kruse Racing team competed in the AT3 class with an Audi RS 3 LMS. Timo Hochwind/Christoph Lenz/Jasmin Preisig finished second in this class, just 11.6 seconds behind a GT4 race car. The two Swiss drivers Armando and Dario Stanco also finished second in another Audi RS 3 LMS in the SP3T class. Liu Zichen won the first race in the fourth round of the TCR China Challenge. The Chinese driver steered the 326 Racing Team’s Audi RS 3 LMS to victory on the Ordos circuit with a 0.355-second lead over Honda driver Sun Juran. In the second race, the two competitors finished in reverse order after Liu Zichen had bad luck in the scramble at the first corner. He improved to second place after Liu Chao from the Delta Artek Racing Team spun in an Audi RS 3 LMS on the tenth of 17 laps and fell back to third position.

Coming up in the next weeks

22–24/08 Sachsenring (D), round 6, DTM
22–24/08 Virginia (USA), round 8, IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge
22–24/08 Slovakiaring (SK), round 5, GT Cup Series
22–24/08 Slovakiaring (SK), round 4, TCR Eastern Europe
28–31/08 Zolder (B), round 4, Belcar Endurance Championship
29–31/08 Nürburgring (D), round 4, GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup
29–31/08 Nürburgring (D), round 5, GT4 European Series powered by Rafa Racing Club
29–31/08 Okayama (J), round 5, GT World Challenge Asia
29–31/08 Spa (B), round 5, Spezial Tourenwagen Trophy