Blancpain Sprint Series: The Audi teams want race victories at Zandvoort

By Tarek Ramchani

Circuit Park Zandvoort in the Netherlands will host the third round of the newly formed Blancpain Sprint Series this upcoming weekend. The Audi Sport customer racing squad will represented by six Audi R8 LMS ultra cars.

The Belgian Audi Club will field three cars. The #1 Audi R8 LMS ultra will be driven by 2013 FIA GT champion Laurens Vanthoor joined by Cesar Ramos. The #2 machine will be in the hands of recent Nurburgring 24 Hours winner René Rast and Enzo Ide. The #4 car is competing in the Silver Cup and will be shared by Vincent Abril and Mateusz Lisowski .

WRT will enter a fourth car under G-Drive Racing banner. The #4 Audi R8 LMS ultra will have Stéphane Ortelli and Roman Rusinov behind the wheels.

Phoenix Racing who just won the Nurburgring 24 Hours will have two cars at Zandvoort. The #5 Audi R8 LMS ulta which compete in the Pro-Am class will be shared by Marc Basseng and youngster Alessandro Latif. The sister #6 car will have Markus Winkelhock and Mayr-Melnhof as drivers.

At Zandvoort the Audi teams are targeting race victories after an unlucky round last time out at Brands Hatch. A total of 21 GT3 cars will enter the Dutch event representing Audi, BMW, Lamborghini, McLaren, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Ferrari.

Zandvoort entry list can be seen here.

Action at the Dutch track will kick off on Friday with two free practice session. Saturday will have both the qualifying session and qualifying race. The main race is set for Sunday.

Photo credit: Endurance-Info / Laurent Chauveau

Nürburgring 24 Hours: Second row on the grid for Phoenix at the Nürburgring

Audi Press Release

• Christian Mamerow third-fastest with Phoenix Racing
• Third row of the grid for Audi R8 LMS ultra of Frank Stippler
• Three Audi cars in the top ten

Ingolstadt/Nürburg, Juni 20, 2014 – The five Audi teams successfully finished their preparations for the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring in the top-30 qualifying session. All eight race cars had qualified for the shoot-out laps and three of them managed to leap into the top ten.

Four different marques in the top four positions of the grid underscore the competitiveness in the GT3 class this year. Phoenix Racing qualified for a second row as the best Audi team. With a lap time of 8m 14.117s, Phoenix driver Christian Mamerow in the shoot-out session improved the provisional qualifying time set by car #4 on a dry track the day before by 7.3 seconds. He will be tackling the race together with Christopher Haase, René Rast and Markus Winkelhock. The team of Ernst Moser, based in Meuspath, will also provide the second-best Audi on the grid at its home round: Frank Stippler achieved the sixth-best lap time. The 2012 winner is sharing car #3 with Marc Basseng, Marcel Fässler and Laurens Vanthoor.

The third Audi driver in the top ten was Pierre Kaffer. The professional race driver, who is sharing the cockpit with extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner, Frank Biela and Marco Werner, qualified in eighth place for the Audi race experience.

Prosperia C. Abt Racing in positions 12 and 19, G-Drive Racing in 17th place, the second car of the Audi race experience in 26th place and the Twinbusch Audi in position 28, completed the results for Audi on the first 14 rows of the grid. The starting order is, however, of secondary importance for the five squads. The crucial aspect was to have come up with a set-up in the practice and qualifying sessions that would give all the drivers a good base for the duration of the 24-hour race. The Audi teams also used the time up to the qualifying session for thorough technical preparations of their R8 LMS ultra cars for the 24-hour race.

The race will be started at 16.00 on Saturday. The fans lining the Nordschleife can look forward to a special appearance preceding the race, as Le Mans winner Marcel Fässler will be driving a lap on the Nordschleife in the Audi R18 e-tron quattro. On TV, the fans can watch the race for more than 15 hours on Sport1. The YouTube channel ADACZurich24hRennen and Fan TV that can be received on location via the DVB-T channel 27 are airing live broadcasts of Germany’s major endurance race as well.

Selected quotes

Romolo Liebchen (Head of Audi Sport customer racing): “We’re generally pleased with the qualifying results. We’ve put ourselves in a good position. We deliberately didn’t battle for the fastest time because we didn’t want to take an excessive risk. The gaps in the field are close, which means we can expect to see an interesting race.”

Christian Mamerow (Audi R8 LMS ultra #4/Phoenix Racing): “I was a bit surprised about how fast we can be on a single lap. I could hardly have driven any faster. The gaps up to position ten are very close. Our car felt good – ‘thank you’ for this to the team. We’re thoroughly prepared, have got a good driver line-up and feel competitive.”

Qualifying results

1 Kevin Estre (McLaren #66) 8m 10.921s
2 Maxime Martin (BMW #25) 8m 13.497s
3 Christian Mamerow (Audi R8 LMS ultra #4) 8m 14.117s
4 Adam Christodoulou (Mercedes #14) 8m 14.290s
5 Dirk Werner (BMW #19) 8m 14.848s
6 Frank Stippler (Audi R8 LMS ultra #3) 8m 14.868s
7 Andreas Simonsen (Mercedes #1) 8m 15.098s
8 Pierre Kaffer (Audi R8 LMS ultra #502) 8m 15.176s
9 Stefan Mücke (Aston Martin #7) 8m 15.834s
10 Alex Buncombe (Nissan #80) 8m 15.922s
12 Nicki Thiim (Audi R8 LMS ultra #9) 8m 16.359s
17 Edward Sandström (Audi R8 LMS ultra #17) 8m 18.132s
19 Christopher Mies (Audi R8 LMS ultra #10) 8m 18.514s
26 Christiaan Frankenhout (Audi R8 LMS ultra #18), 8m 25.326s
28 Dennis Busch (Audi R8 LMS ultra #16) 8m 30.155s

Photo credit: Audi Media

Nürburgring 24 Hours: Second and third for Audi in the first qualifying session

By Tarek Ramchani

A very postive day for the Audi Sport customer racing squad at the Nürburgring 24 Hours. The Audi R8 LMS ultra cars performed very well in free practice session and in the first qualifying session today.

Earlier today the Phoenix Racing team secured a fine 1-2 in the single free practice session of the week. The #4 Audi R8 LMS ultra of Christopher Haase, Christian Mamerow, Rene Rast and Markus Winkelhock ahead of the sister #3 machine driven by Marc Basseng, Marcel Fassler, Frank Stippler and Laurens Vanthoor.

Later in the first qualifying session the Audis did very well again. The Audi teams were able to secure a fine second and third in the session. The #4 car from Phoenix Racing in the hands of  Christopher Haase, Christian Mamerow, Rene Rast and Markus Winkelhock was second fastest with a best time of 8:21.454.

The Audi race experience secured a great third place. The #502 Audi R8 LMS ultra shared by arco Werner, Frank Biela, Pierre Kaffer and Felix Baumgartner with a best time of 8:23.322.

The second Audi from Phoenix Racing was eighth fastest with Marc Basseng, Marcel Fassler, Frank Stippler and Laurens Vanthoor. The two R8 LMS ultra cars from Prosperica C.Abt Racing were eighteenth (#10 Audi) and nineteenth (#9 Audi).

The teams and drivers will hit the track again tomorrow for another 2-hour qualifying session before the special Top-30 qualifying shootout in the afternoon.

Photo credit: IG Autorennsport

Busy weekend for WRT Audi at Nürburgring 24 Hours and Spa-Francorchamps

By Tarek Ramchani

The W Racing Team (WRT) will have a very busy weekend this upcoming weekend. The Belgian Audi team will be on two different locations same time with their Audi R8 LMS ultra cars.

The Vincent Vosse managed squad will enter both the Nürburgring 24 Hours and the French GT Tour round of Spa-Francorchamps. The two efforts will be under two diffrent banners.

At the Nürburgring 24 Hours a single Audi R8 LMS ultra have been entered. The #17 under the G-Drive Racing banner will be shared by Nico Müller, Stéphane Ortelli, Roman Rusinov and Edward Sandström. The four drivers are among the favourites to take the overall race win. This will be the third straight year that WRT enter the Nordschleife endurance classic.

In the French GT Tour event at Spa-Francorchamps, WRT will field two Audi R8 LMS ultra cars under Belgian Audi Club Team WRT banner. The team is preparing the upcoming Spa 24 Hours race and will have two fresh Le Mans 24 Hours winners, André Lotterer and Benoit Tréluyer. André Lotterer will drive along with Enzo Ide. Benoit Tréluyer will be joined by Yves Weerts.

Photo credit: Belgian Audi Club

Blancpain Sprint Series: Mixed main race for the Audi teams at Brands Hatch

By Tarek Ramchani

A kind of déja vu for the Audi teams in the Blancpain Sprint Series main race at Brands Hatch. The Audi R8 LMS ultra cars had a mixed race and never been able to challenge for the victory.

After an unlucky qualifying race earlier this morning the Audi teams knew from the start that race win would be a difficult target.

Belgian Audi Club Team WRT was able to place all their three cars inside the Top 10. The #1 Audi driven by Laurens Vanthoor and César Ramos finished fourth. The #4 Audi in the hands of Vincent Abril and Mateusz Lisowsk finished in a solid sixth place, a great performance from a car competing in the Silver Cup. The #2 Audi of René Rast and Enzo Ide was ninth. In the closing stages René Rast battled for eighth position with a BMW Z4 GT3 but it was too late as time run out.

Hard race for the two Phoenix Racing Audis. The #5 R8 LMS ultra of Marc Basseng and Alessandro Latif was eleventh. The sister #6 car of Markus Winkelhock and Niki Mayr-Melnhof did not finish the race and was forced to retire on lap 14.

The G-Drive Racing Audi too was unlucky. The #3 car managed by WRT and driven by Stéphane Ortelli and Roman Rusinov ended in thirteenth position.

A déja vu in the Top 3 as well. As was the case in the qualifying race, the main race had the very same trio of leaders. Race win went to the #28 Lamborghini Gallardo FL2 from Grasser Racing Team. Second the #84 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 from HTP Motorsport. Third the #0 BMW Z4 GT3 from BMW Team Brazil.

Next stop for the Blancpain Sprint Series will be in the Netherlands with the popular Zandvoort Masters, July 4th-6th.

Photo credit: W Racing Team / Patrick Hecq Photography

Blancpain Sprint Series: Unlucky qualifying race for Audi teams at Brands Hatch

By Tarek Ramchani

After a sensational pole position at Brands Hatch yesterday, the Audi squadwas aiming high in today's Qualifying Race. Unfortunately, the Audi Sport customer racing teams faced a very hard race.

The Audi teams were simply unlucky. Both Belgian Audi Club Team WRT and Phoenix Racing performed very well in the opening stages. Laurens Vanthoor strongly leading and Markus Winkelhock was in third.

After the mandatory pit-stops and several laps behind the Safety Car, the Audi R8 LMS ultra strugled with a single car within the Top 5. The #6 entry from Phoenix Racing finished fifth in the hands of Markus Winkelhock and Niki Mayr-Melnhof.

The #1 Audi from Belgian Audi Club Team WRT was sixth with Laurens Vanthoor and Cesar Ramos. The #4 Audi from Belgian Audi Club Team WRT was twelfth with Vincent Abril and Mateusz Lisowski. The #5 Audi from Phoenix Racing was thirteenth with Marc Basseng and Alessandro Latif. The #2 Audi from Belgian Audi Club Team WRT was fourteenth with René Rast and Enzo Ide. The #3 Audi from G-Drive Racing did not finish the race, the car shared by Stéphane Ortelli and Roman Rusinov retired in the first lap of the race.

Race win went to the #28 Lamborghini Gallardo FL2 from Grasser Racing Team. Second the #84 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 from HTP Motorsport. Third the #0 BMW Z4 GT3 from BMW Team Brazil.

The Main Race will follow next with the starting order based on the final results of the Qualifying Race.

Photo credit: Blancpain GT Series

Blancpain Sprint Series: Pole position for Belgian Audi Club Team WRT at Brands Hatch

By Tarek Ramchani

Brands Hatch is hosting the second round of the Blancpain Sprint Series this weekend. And it is all starting well for the Audi squad with a fine pole position this afternoon.

The #1 R8 LMS ultra from Belgian Audi Club Team WRT secured the pole position. The #1 Audi driven by Laurens Vanthoor and Cesar Ramos will start first tomorrow in the 1-hour Qualifying Race. A very fast Laurens vanthoor set the fastest time in Q3 with a quick 1:23.865, just 0.022s ahead of the second placed #84 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG from HTP Motorsport.

The #6 Audi R8 LMS ultra from Phoenix Racing performed well also. The car driven by Markus Winkelhock and Niki Mayr Melnhof qualified in a strong fourth place.

The second car from Belgian Audi Club Team WRT made it into the top 10. The #2 Audi R8 LMS ultra in the hands of René Rast and Enzo Ide qualified in eighth place.

The remaining three Audi R8 LMS ultra cars from G-Drive Racing (#3 Audi) of Stéphane Ortelli and Roman Rusinov, Phoenix Racing (#5 Audi) of  Alessandro Latif and Marc Basseng and Belgian Audi Club Team WRT (#4 Audi) were outside the Top 10.

The two races are set for tomorrow with a Live Stream coverage on the official series website. We wish the best of luck to all Audi teams and drivers.

Photo credit: Blancpain GT Series

N24: G-Drive Racing starts the season with excellent 6th at the Nürburgring

G-Drive Racing Press Release

The 6 Hours race served mainly as a real-life test and to qualify all drivers ahead of the 24 Hours in June

G-Drive Racing had an excellent start of the 2014 season, as the Audi R8 LMS ultra driven by Roman Rusinov, Stéphane Ortelli, Nico Müller and Edward Sandström finished 6th today in the 6 Hours Qualification race at the Nürburgring. This race served as general preparation for the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring, the landmark endurance marathon to be raced later in the year, on 21-22 June, but also had a very specific purpose: to allow Ortelli and Müller to qualify for the longer race. As known, drivers competing on the 24 Hours need to have a minimum of race experience on the 23-km legendary track of the Nordschleife in order to be allowed to compete in the 24 Hours. Of the four G-Drive Racing, Ortelli and Müller were seeking the ‘green’ card. The expert Monegasque, despiter his long career, had never driven before in the 24 Hours while the young Swiss has raced mainly single-seaters so far. After solving some tire problems encountered on Saturday’s free practice and qualifying 1, the Audi took an excellent third position in the final qualifying. Nico Müller and Stéphane Ortelli were logically the two first drivers in the sequence, performing each one the required double stint, followed then by Roman Rusinov, who raced the 24 Hours last year, and Edward Sandström. While the race was dominated by the BMWs, thanks to their higher top speed, the G-Drive Audi was always among the front-runners, completing a trouble-free race in P6, ahead of all other R8s LMS ultra.

This Nürburgring race has been as well an excellent rehearsal for the entire team ahead of the start of the team’s main programme, the Blancpain Sprint Series, which will kick-off at Nogaro, France on Easter’s weekend (20-21 April). Roman Rusinov and Stéphane Ortelli will be at the wheel of the car for the entire Sprint Series season.

QUOTES

Roman Rusinov:

“We are extremely satisfied with what achieved this weekend. The result is good, although that was not the main objective today. We have been the top Audi on track throughout the race and the work done by the entire team will be very useful. It’s always impressive to race on the Nordschleife, but it was a completely dry race, something relatively unusual on this track. We had a very consistent pace and I enjoyed very much.”

Vincent Vosse, Team Principal:

“We achieved our goals: to have Ortelli and Müller qualify for the 24 Hours race and have a very positive test in real race conditions. I am very happy of the work of the entire team and of being the top Audi in the rankings. The BMWs proved extremely strong here, so I think the race has provided also very interesting info for improving the Balance of Performance”.

Thierry Tassin, Sporting Director:

“We had some issues with the tires on Saturday, as they were losing pressure and even breaking, but we managed to solve that and on Sunday everything went OK. We worked well and most of all, the entire team learned a lot of useful things ahead of the real race in June.”

6 Hrs Nürburgring Qualifying Race
Nürburgring, 6 April 2014
Race result:

1. Martin-Alzen-Wittmann (BMW Z4) 40 laps
2. Klingmann-Baumann-Hürtgen (BMW Z4) + 44s367
3. Werner-Luhr-J.Müller-Sims (BMW Z4) + 1m05s177
4. Leinders-Palttala-Catsburg-Altdorf (BMW Z4) + 2m22s934
5. Al-Faisal-Rösler-Menzel-Bleekemolen (Mercedes SLS) + 4m27s260
6. N.Müller-Ortelli-Rusinov-Sandström (Audi R8 LMS ultra) + 1 lap

Photo credit: Brecht Decancq Photography