Audi wants to make a mark in China

At Silverstone then at Road Atlanta, the Audi R15 plus did not seem, in pure performance, very far from the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP. Unfortunately for the Germans, victory twice eluded them, giving Peugeot the double. The leaders of Audi Sport Team Joest are therefore well aware that it now seems unlikely that the first crown in the history of ILMC will fall to them. Indeed, it is enough for one of the two 908s to pass under the checkered flag in 11th position for Peugeot to be assured of reaping the laurels.

Despite everything, victory will be the only objective of Dr. Ullrich's troops. First of all to reconnect with the first step of the podium, then to highlight itself in a country that is a very important market for the German firm.

“The Zhuhai 1000 Km concludes a 2010 season during which we achieved an impressive hat-trick in 24 Hours of Le Mans, everything is breaking the distance traveled record, declares the CEO of Audi Motorsport. China is an extremely important market for Audi. That?s why we?ll do everything possible to make a good impression with our diesel-powered racing car. We had two cars on the first row of the starting grid at Silverstone, for the inaugural round of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup. At Road Atlanta we led the race for a long time. In Zhuhai we want to win, knowing that we will have to face an extremely strong opponent.”

« À Silverstone we started from pole position, continues Technical Director Ralf Jüttner. HAS Road Atlanta the fight with Peugeot was very close. That's why we will try to get rid of our bad luck in Zhuhai in order to end the season with a victory. For almost our entire team, racing on this track will be a new experience. Our engineer Leena Gade is the only one to have come here, with the A1 GP, and Romain Dumas won a race there (In Formula Renault, Editor’s note) 13 years ago.”

On the Zhuhai route, located in the province of Guangdong, the two Audi R15 plus numbers 7 and 8 will respectively be entrusted to the duos Allan McNish-Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello-Romain Dumas. On a relatively winding track requiring a lot of downforce, the winner of the last Le Mans classic could prove to be a formidable weapon, and cause a lot of problems for the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP.