“Green hell” reveals its cruel character
After rejoicing Audi’s first pole position for the 24-hour race at the Nordschleife the anticlimax followed on Sunday: Both R8 LMS entered by the Allgäu based squad were forced to retire early from the race.
As a result, the guys were unable to repeat last year’s successful result when the team claimed a class victory. The car crewed by DTM stars Mattias Ekström, Oliver Jarvis and Timo Scheider and also sportscar ace Marco Werner was forced into retirement on Saturday evening following a collision a good seven hours into the race. On Sunday morning the same bad luck struck the sister car of Christian Abt, Emmanuel Collard, Lucas Luhr and Christopher Mies in the form of driveshaft damage.
"Congratulations to the BMW team for winning. Whoever leads the field after such a brutal 24 hours deserves to win without a shadow of doubt,” explains Team Boss Hans-Jürgen Abt. "The notorious ‘green hell’ revealed its cruel face to us during the race. To lose both cars is certainly one of the bitter motorsport experiences. It’s of little comfort that we took the first pole position for an Audi at this event on Friday and led for many laps during the race.”
Start number 100 (Ekström/Jarvis/Scheider/Werner) was second at the time of the collision with a lapped car. The R8 was damaged too badly on the left-rear as a result. In succession, the sister car came up trumps and moved into the lead during the night due to a series of fast lap times, after the Abt/Collard/Luhr/Mies squad had earlier dropped down to tenth place because of a tyre failure. At the time of the defect around 10:30 the best Audi with start number 2 was holding a promising second position within striking distance of the leader.
ABT Sportsline does not have time to despair: The Audi factory team travels already this coming weekend to the second DTM race in Valencia. Hans-Jürgen Abt: "Accepting defeat is a part of motorsport. It’s important to get up, brush yourself down and comeback stronger after a set-back. This exactly what we will do.”
As a result, the guys were unable to repeat last year’s successful result when the team claimed a class victory. The car crewed by DTM stars Mattias Ekström, Oliver Jarvis and Timo Scheider and also sportscar ace Marco Werner was forced into retirement on Saturday evening following a collision a good seven hours into the race. On Sunday morning the same bad luck struck the sister car of Christian Abt, Emmanuel Collard, Lucas Luhr and Christopher Mies in the form of driveshaft damage.
"Congratulations to the BMW team for winning. Whoever leads the field after such a brutal 24 hours deserves to win without a shadow of doubt,” explains Team Boss Hans-Jürgen Abt. "The notorious ‘green hell’ revealed its cruel face to us during the race. To lose both cars is certainly one of the bitter motorsport experiences. It’s of little comfort that we took the first pole position for an Audi at this event on Friday and led for many laps during the race.”
Start number 100 (Ekström/Jarvis/Scheider/Werner) was second at the time of the collision with a lapped car. The R8 was damaged too badly on the left-rear as a result. In succession, the sister car came up trumps and moved into the lead during the night due to a series of fast lap times, after the Abt/Collard/Luhr/Mies squad had earlier dropped down to tenth place because of a tyre failure. At the time of the defect around 10:30 the best Audi with start number 2 was holding a promising second position within striking distance of the leader.
ABT Sportsline does not have time to despair: The Audi factory team travels already this coming weekend to the second DTM race in Valencia. Hans-Jürgen Abt: "Accepting defeat is a part of motorsport. It’s important to get up, brush yourself down and comeback stronger after a set-back. This exactly what we will do.”
