St. Peterburg - April 5, 2008
Audi scored the first victory of the Audi R10 TDI in the 2008 American
Le Mans Series in a thrilling battle in the second round at St
Petersburg (US state of Florida). Lucas Luhr who is partnered with
Marco Werner finished with a victory margin of just 0.818s, having
re-captured the lead of the race just three laps before the end. It was
the 14th outright victory of the diesel-powered sportscar and the first
overall win of Lucas Luhr in the series.
Having controlled the race from the beginning, pole-sitter Marco Werner
built up a margin on soft tyres over Porsche driver Timo Bernhard in the
first part of the race. A full-course yellow caution prompted the team to call
in Werner in lap 36 for a full service. Lucas Luhr took over and followed
Romain Dumas in the leading Porsche. After a second safety car
intervention, Lucas Luhr took the lead in lap 63 with a breathtaking
manoeuvre after the straight. When the leading cars lapped several
backmarkers, Luhr lost the lead to Dumas again. After a final yellow
phase, Luhr used the TDI power of his car to pass the leader under
acceleration on the straight with just three laps to go and eventually
celebrated his first overall victory.
Emanuele Pirro/Frank Biela in the Audi R10 TDI #1 sister car were forced
to retire after a set of problems dropped them back. An indication of what
might have been possible became evident by the sheer speed of the car
which set the fastest lap of the race in 1m 04.942s, one hundredth
quicker than the sister car.
Having improved from ninth position on the grid to fifth place, Frank Biela
handed over the car to his Italian team-mate in lap 36. Only after Pirro had
departed again, it was clear that a tossle after a restart in the early phase
of the race had caused damage to a stressed part of the rear wing. For
safety reasons, the team changed the rear end which dropped the car
back by one lap. The decision to go for soft tyres and a splash-and-dash
refuelling to make up for the lost time seemed to be perfect. But in lap 63
Pirro had to retire in the pits after the body of his car had suffered too
severe damage in a contact with another car. As the Audi R10 TDI #1 has
achieved a sufficient number of laps to be classified, it finished 24th
overall and 2nd in the LM P1 class.
Quotes after the race at St Petersburg
Dr Wolfgang Ullrich (Head of Audi Motorsport)
"I feel very pleased, particularly after the disappointing result in the first
round at Sebring. It is all the more surprising that we managed to clinch
the victory on a street course which is normally not so well-suited to the
strengths of the Audi R10 TDI. This is a great motivation for the next races
as well as for the whole 2008 season.”
Lucas Luhr (Audi R10 TDI #2)
"It was a tough race for us. We struggled a bit in the heat. But at the end,
we got it and that is what counts. Thank you to the whole team and Audi
Sport North America for the support as well as the guys back home. This
victory really means a lot to me because it is my first overall victory in the
American Le Mans Series and it is my first victory for Audi. I’m really
happy. I want to thank everybody for their help.”
Marco Werner (Audi R10 TDI #2)
"A great day for Audi so I’m very happy for the make and for Champion
Racing. Everything worked well. At the end it was a thriller. I’m proud of
Lucas as he did an excellent job, especially after the restart. That’s why
we drive TDI!”
Frank Biela (Audi R10 TDI #1)
"I think the performance of our car was quite good. After having chosen
the harder tyre compound for qualifying, it looked like a disadvantage. But
the pace in the race was okay. Unfortunately, I got involved in a tangle at
the beginning of the race. When we came in for full service, I was quite
optimistic. But then we had to change the rear wing which has been
damaged in the collision. This was the beginning of the end. But the most
important thing is the other car scored a win.”
Emanuele Pirro (Audi R10 TDI #1)
"The positive thing is the win which is really good. For Frank and myself,
however, it was a debut which was half good and half bad. We had a lot of
bad luck. But when you read between the lines, we were really fast in the
race. We had a very good car which was proven by the fastest overall race
lap we’ve achieved. But every time we had a problem, we were trapped in
it. Unfortunately, everything which could go wrong did go wrong. But our
speed was good so we look forward to the next race.”
Dave Maraj (Director Audi Sport Team North America)
"This was a very exciting race. Lucas did a great job, as did everybody in
the team from tyre people right to the engineers. I am happy to bring
home another win for Audi.”
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