TEAM WRT WRITE HISTORY WITH VICTORY AT THE SUZUKA 10 HOURS

TEAM WRT WRITE HISTORY WITH VICTORY AT THE SUZUKA 10 HOURS

25/08/2019

It was a weekend to remember for Team WRT. The Belgian squad has added another of the ‘big ones’ to its roll of honour, as the Audi Sport Team WRT-entered Audi R8 LMS took a triumphant win at the Suzuka 10 Hours in the hands of Dries Vanthoor, Fred Vervisch and Kelvin van der Linde. They wrote history by giving Audi its first international win in Japan, in the fourth round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge.

Team Principal Vincent Vosse commented: “It is a wonderful weekend for Team WRT. After Bathurst, Dubai, Nürburgring, Spa, Sepang and Zolder, we won at Suzuka, which is a superb trophy to include in our shelve! Moreover, it has been a victory resulting from a perfect performance by the entire team. The car worked perfectly, the team and the drivers put on an exceptional and faultless performance, and everything worked smoothly. In the DTM too, we had a positive weekend, showing good pace, fighting at the top and scoring points. I am very happy for Team WRT today!”

IGTC

In Japan, for the fourth round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge, the Audi R8 LMS of Audi Sport Team WRT, with a special Nogaro blue livery and sporting #25 to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of the launch of the first RS model, perfectly achieved its mission: to give Audi its first win in the prestigious Suzuka 10 Hours.

Everything started well for the Belgian outfit, as the car revealed competitive since the Friday’s free practice sessions on the wet, where #25 was consistently sixth. It then raised its game on Saturday’s qualifying, on a dry track, with Dries Vanthoor taking 4^th in his stint, Kelvin van der Linde 1^st and Fred Vervisch 5^th. In the combined results, car #25 topped the rankings, although it narrowly missed the pole in the Shoot Pole exercise to eventually take P2 on the grid.

The race saw the car running in P3 in the initial hour, very close to the leaders, who 90 minutes into the race got involved in race incidents. This, combined to a successful undercut in a pit stop, allowed the Audi to take the lead. From there on there was no race. Luckily, no hiccup whatsoever and no race incident affected the Audi #25 that took a dominant and historic win.

Dries Vanthoor: “It was an incredible weekend and I am very happy for Audi, Team WRT and ourselves. Everything worked to perfection throughout the weekend, something which does not happen often in endurance racing, but when it does, it is just great!”

Fred Vervisch: “This morning, before the race, Chris Reinke [head of Audi Sport Customer Racing] told us: “We have the possibility of writing history”, and we did it. This is a great achievement that we will be proud of for a long time.”

Pierre Dieudonné (Sporting Director): “It is an historic win for Audi and a great one for Team WRT, for sure. It was not easy, because it is never easy. We have been in the lead since an early stage, but every time we had built a gap of 20-30 seconds, we have lost it because of yellow flag periods. Still, the car has been fast and reliable throughout the weekend, and there wasn’t a single issue, error or incident, which is rare. We took great care in working on the right set-up to avoid tyre degradation, which is always an issue here, and that proved key.” 

IGTC – Round 4
Suzuka 24 Hours, Japan, 24-25 August 2019

Race Result
1. Vanthoor-Vervisch-van der Linde (Audi R8 LMS) 275 laps
2. Buhk-Engel-Marciello (Mercedes AMG) +40s367
3. Olsen-Campbell-Werner (Porsche 911R) +43s797
4. Goetz-Stolz-Buurman (Mercedes AMG) +47s638

5. Tomczyk-Yelloly-Farfus (BMW M6) +48s686

DTM – Round 7
Lausitzring, Germany, 24-25 August 2019

Race 1 Result
1. Nico Müller (Audi) 34 laps

2. Robin Frijns (Audi) + 2s496
3. Mike Rockenfeller (Audi) + 3s206
4. Philipp Eng (BMW) +13s477
5. Loïc Duval (Audi) +14s742
7. Pietro Fittipaldi (Audi) +16s859

14. Jonathan Aberdein (Audi) +45s064

Race 2 Result
1. René Rast (Audi) 34 laps

2. Nico Müller (Audi) + 5s187
3. Mike Rockenfeller (Audi) + 8s953
4. Jamie Green (Audi) + 9s618

5. Robin Frijns (Audi) +11s341

7. Jonathan Aberdein (Audi) +13s752
9. Pietro Fittipaldi (Audi) +21s130

PHOTO: AUDI SPORT