- Audi's new R18 coupe upstaged Peugeot in the Sunday test session at Le Mans.
- Eight-time winner Tom Kristensen's entry topped the speed charts.
- Peugeot barely grabbed 3rd place from the third Audi entry.
LE MANS, France — The new Audi R18 TDI racecar, paced by the No. 3 entry piloted by Tom Kristensen, Rinaldo Capello and Allan McNish, dominated Le Mans Prototype 1 speeds in Sunday's test session for entries in the 79th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The race is scheduled for June 11-12.
Kristensen, an eight-time winner of the endurance classic, ran a best lap of 3 minutes, 27.687 seconds in the new turbodiesel-powered coupe. The No. 1 R18, assigned to reigning champions Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Mike Rockenfeller, was 2nd at 3:27.815 and a third Audi, the No. 2 of Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer, was 4th fastest.
Interrupting an Audi sweep was the Peugeot 908 of Stéphane Sarrazin, Franck Montagny and Nicolas Minassian. The No. 8 car was clocked at 3:27.876, just two one-thousandths of a second ahead of the third-fastest Audi.
Audi has spearheaded a diesel-powered revolution at Le Mans, winning four of the last five races to go with a streak of five wins in six years from 2000-'05 with gasoline engines. Peugeot entered its diesel-fueled 908, a closed-cockpit machine, against the open-air Audis for the first time in 2007 and won the 24 Hours in 2009.
Although that is its only recent Le Mans victory, Peugeot has enjoyed a measure of success against Audi in other events. Both factory teams stumbled in the 12 Hours of Sebring in March, with a privateer Peugeot taking overall honors.
Audi entered the R15 at Sebring. The new R18 will make its racing debut in the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup event May 8 at Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium.
Kristensen got his first overall Le Mans victory in 1997 driving a Joest Racing Porsche. He won six consecutive titles from 2000 through 2005, the first three for Audi Sport Team Joest. After a year with the Bentley team that claimed honors in 2006, Kristensen returned to Audi for his next two victories, one with Japan Team Goh and the other with ADT Champion Racing.
Inside Line says: It was a promising showing for the new Audi, but the margin was close. This year's Le Mans race should be a classic. — David Green, Correspondent
Add A Comment »
a1c_scg says:
10:54 AM, 04/25/2011
It's not a big middle finger to convention, it's the regs. All the top-tier Prototypes follow them. And Puegot is doing a lot more than 'not figuring it out'.
coastielenn says:
09:58 AM, 04/25/2011
Sweet headlights!
stingray454 says:
09:38 AM, 04/25/2011
I love the fact it is a diesel. A big middle finger to convention, and they made it work well while their competitors can't figure it out.
BTW, did they steal those headlights from an Escalade Platinum? LOL - they look almost the same.
a1c_scg says:
08:26 AM, 04/25/2011
I still miss the golden days of prototype racing. Audi will most likey put another LeMans notch in it's belt.