Audi teams ready for Le Mans race
- Audi second, third and sixth in warm-up
- Pirro, Lehto and Montagny nominated as starting drivers
- Dr Martin Winterkorn honorary starter of the race
Saturday’s morning warm-up for the 73rd running of the Le Mans 24 Hours was completed without any problems for the two Audi importer teams ADT Champion Racing (USA) and Audi PlayStation Team ORECA (France). All nine Audi drivers were in action during the 45-minute warm-up session. The three Audi R8 were noted in positions two, three and six respectively.
At the start of the race, set for 4 p.m., Emanuele Pirro (#2), JJ Lehto (#3) and Franck Montagny (#4) will be at the wheel of the three Audi R8 sports cars. During the race, driver changes are planned as follows:
Audi R8 #2: Emanuele Pirro > Allan McNish > Frank Biela
Audi R8 #3: JJ Lehto > Marco Werner > Tom Kristensen
Audi R8 #4: Franck Montagny > Stéphane Ortelli > Jean-Marc Gounon
The early morning, temperatures had already reached over 20 degrees Celsius. For the start of the race, 31 degrees is predicted, for Sunday even up to 34 degrees. At night, temperatures are forecasted to stay above 20 degrees Celsius.
The endurance classic will be started by Dr Martin Winterkorn. The Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG was elected as the honorary starter by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO). At 11:30 a.m., Dr Winterkorn will hand-over 18 Audi cars which will be used by the ACO as “Official Cars”.