Audi customer team keeps DTM title fight exciting

Audi R8 LMS GT3

Open title fight in the DTM: ABT Sportsline continues to keep the DTM exciting. On the sixth of eight race weekends, the Audi customer team lost the lead of the standings with Kelvin van der Linde in the first race at the Sachsenring. The following day, the Allgäu-based team regained the lead in the second race. With second place on the grid, Kelvin van der Linde had put himself in an excellent starting position for Sunday. Although he lost two positions at the start, he made up for this loss in a turbulent race at 30 degrees Celsius. This second place – already his fifth podium result this year – was enough for the Audi driver to once again take a seven-point lead over Lamborghini driver Mirko Bortolotti. This means that the gap between the two title contenders is exactly the same as it was before the race weekend at the Sachsenring. Petr Fulín continued his good form with his own team at the finale of the Eset Cup in Brno, Czech Republic. Having already won his class on his debut in the Audi R8 LMS in August, he was once again unbeatable in both sprints. In the first competition, he won the GT3 classification by more than 21 seconds, in the second by more than 18 seconds. Third place went to Martin Hudec from the Duck Racing Team in another Audi. In Asia, Audi’s customer teams recorded a total of eight podium finishes in two different countries, including three victories. At the third round of the GT Sprint Challenge in China, the Azure Lane by HEHEHE Racing team with Zhou Tianji/Hu Bo won the first sprint after the original winners received ten penalty seconds for causing a collision. This meant that the Uno Racing Team with Chen Yechong/Thomas Song, who had crossed the finish line first, had to settle for second place in Ningbo. Climax Racing with Jason Gu/Wang Zhongwei completed the one-two-three for the Audi R8 LMS. Gu and Wang went on to win the second race by more than five seconds. The fourth race weekend of the Thailand Super Series in Malaysia featured three competitions. Team B-Quik Absolute Racing achieved second and third place with Akash Nandy/Eshan Pieris and Huang Ruohan/Lin Hao in the first race in Sepang with the Audi R8 LMS. The third-placed drivers also won the amateur classification. Huang Ruohan/Lin Hao then celebrated overall victory in a chaotic second race, which ended in the rain after an accident behind the safety car. Second place went to another Audi team: Sandy Stuvik/Yi Deng for the Winhere by B-Quik Absolute Racing team were just 0.396 seconds behind the winners and won the Pro-Am classification. In the Audi Sport Asia Trophy for private drivers, Huang Ruohan increased his lead ahead of Vincent Lin and Henk Kiks. Johnny O’Connell finished on the podium for the eleventh time this season in the GT America powered by AWS. On the seventh race weekend at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama, the Audi privateer driver dropped back in the first race due to a puncture, but in the second race he improved from third on the grid and overtook a Porsche. Towards the end, O’Connell in the Audi R8 LMS from SKI Autosports put the eventual winner Jason Daskalos in the Mercedes under significant pressure and finished second, just six tenths of a second behind.

Audi RS 3 LMS (TCR)

Battle for the lead of the standings: Audi privateer Nicola Baldan had to show nerves of steel on the fourth race weekend of the TCR Italy. He had traveled to Imola with a three-point lead and started the first race from seventh on the grid in his Audi RS 3 LMS. After the Italian crossed the finish line in the same position, the championship lead had passed to Honda driver Ruben Volt with a two-point advantage. In the subsequent sprint, Baldan stormed into the lead from second on the grid and celebrated his second win of the season after 16 laps. This puts him eight points ahead of Volt with two race weekends remaining. In the TCR Italy DSG for racing cars with dual-clutch transmissions, which also took place in Imola, victory in the first race went to Luca Franca from Aikoa Racing. It was his first win of the season. Third place went to Luca Verdi from Planet Motorsport. Both drove a first-generation Audi RS 3 LMS. Verdi was the best Audi driver in the second race in second place. Franca leads the standings with a 31-point advantage. In the TCR Eastern Europe, the Czech Martin Kadlečik in the Audi RS 3 LMS from Aditis Racing finished second in each of the two races in Brno. In the Super Taikyu Series, Audi Team Show Apex secured its first win of the season on the fourth race weekend in Motegi. Yoshinari Fujiwara/Shigetomo Shimono/Shozo Tagahara had started the five-hour race in third place in the TCR class. While their two Honda rivals struggled in the heat of the race, the Audi driver trio took the lead and built up a two-lap advantage by the finish. In the TCR China Challenge, Pan Yiming won the first sprint for Nkoda HW Racing on the fifth race weekend. Third place went to TPR Racing with Li Kahei in another Audi RS 3 LMS. In the second sprint in Ningbo, Li Kahei took second place ahead of Liu Zichen in an Audi from the 326 Racing Team.

Audi R8 LMS GT4

Top performance in Japan: Team Techno First had its strongest weekend of the season so far at the fourth round of the Super Taikyu Series in Japan. Masaki Kanou/Ryoma Henzan/Hironobu Yasuda/Riki Okusa in the Audi R8 LMS GT4 defied the heat on the Motegi circuit. The team had planned equal race distances for each of the four drivers in the five-hour race and paid close attention to fuel consumption. The strategy proved to be very balanced, resulting in second place out of eleven participants in the ST-Z category. The Audi R8 LMS GT4 also achieved a podium finish in China. At the third round of the GT Sprint Challenge in Ningbo, Harmony Racing with the driver pairing of Bao Junbin/Tenn Wu was the third-best GT4 team in the first race.

Coming up next week

13–14/09 Teretonga (NZ), round 1, South Island Endurance Championship
13–15/09 Dijon (F), round 5, GT4 France
13–15/09 Dijon (F), round 5, TC France
13–15/09 Red Bull Ring (A), round 6, International GT Open
13–15/09 Barcelona (E), round 5, 24H Series powered by Hankook
13–15/09 Buriram (THA), round 4, TCR Asia
14/09 Snetterton (GB), round 6, British Endurance Championship
14–15/09 Shanghai (CHN), round 6, GT World Challenge Asia
14–15/09 Vallelunga (I), round 4, Coppa Italia Turismo