Audi R8Rs still amongst the leaders
Newcomer Audi continues to make a good impression on its Le Mans 24 Hours debut. On Sunday morning, the R8R No.8 was lying in fourth position, still in contention of claiming a top-three place and handily placed just one lap behind the second placed car.
During the night, the Frank Biela/Emanuele Pirro/Didier Theys Audi R8R had climbed up to third position following consistently fast lap times. But they were forced to change the brake discs in the early hours of this morning.
Audi‘s Head of Sport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich, commented: „It was very strange because three discs were perfect but one had a problem.“
Dr Ullrich was happy with the performance of the R8R. „During the night we were able to set times comparable with those of the leaders.“
The drivers also praised the qualities of the R8R. Laurent Aiello „The car is really good and easy to drive. It was only because of this fact that I was able to do three consecutive hours behind the wheel.“
The Audi R8R No.7 was in sixth position for some time. At 7.25am this morning, Audi Sport Team Joest discovered a faulty gearbox selection component. Because of this, the R8R had to change from the steering wheel mounted shift version to the conventional gear lever operation costing 30 minutes in the pits and dropping the car to eighth.
With so many retirements during the night, Dr Ullrich was hopeful for the final stages of the race. Dr Ullrich: „At least we still have both R8Rs in the race and capable of achieving top placings.“
Unfortunately this was not the case for the Audi R8C. The first of the two Coupés entered by Audi Sport UK retired on Saturday evening (20.00) due to a differential problem. The second R8C stopped on Sunday morning (08.20) with a transmission fault.