Ingolstadt, May 6, 2002
Audi enjoyed a successful dress rehearsal for the Le Mans 24 hour
race on 15/16 June 2002. During the pre-practice on Sunday, the
three Infineon Audi R8 sports cars from Audi Sport Team Joest and
Audi Sport North America once again run like clockwork. During the
eight available hours of testing, the Audi works drivers covered a total
of 303 laps - equivalent to a distance of more than 4000 kilometres
(2600 miles) - without any problems.
The latest generation Infineon Audi R8 proved not only to be reliable
but also very fast especially during the closing stages: Just before the
end of the pre-practice at 6 p.m., Rinaldo Capello set the fastest time
of the day in the Infineon Audi R8 with starting number 2. With his lap
time of 3m 30.296s the Italian went faster than his pole position time
from last year by more than two seconds despite the Le Mans track
now being 275 metres (300.74 yards) longer because of a new
corner between the famous “Dunlop bridge” and the section “Esses”.
The two other Infineon Audi R8 sports cars finished third and fourth.
For the Audi Sport Japan Team Goh, the pre-practice ended
premature after Seiji Ara went off at “Tetre Rouge”.
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