“Both of our driver squads showed flawless performances in what have been the hottest conditions so far this year,” said Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. “In spite of spending more than an hour and a half in the cockpit per stint, each driver delivered a consistently strong race before turning the car over to his teammate. At Austin, we were the only manufacturer to finish the race with both cars without any technical issues, but in the end had to admit defeat to Porsche in the battle for victory.”
Chris Reinke, Head of LMP at Audi Sport, praised the performance by the entire squad. “We lost valuable practice time on Thursday due to technical issues. Consequently, in preparing for the race, we weren’t able to check off some of the items on our list such as the important endurance runs of the tires. But no-one was unsettled by this. We showed a concentrated performance and delivered a solid race in challenging conditions.”
The next challenge in the World Championship is coming up in three weeks from now. On October 11, Audi, as the leader of the standings, will be contesting round six in Japan. The third from last 6-hour race of the 2015 season will be held on the circuit at Fuji – the World Endurance Championship is turning onto the finish straight.
Race results
1 Bernhard/Hartley/Webber (Porsche) 185 laps
2 Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer (Audi R18 e-tron quattro) +1m 06.840s
3 di Grassi/Duval/Jarvis (Audi R18 e-tron quattro) –1 lap
4 Buemi/Davidson/Nakajima (Toyota) –2 laps
5 Bird/Canal/Rusinov (Ligier) –15 laps
6 Bradley/Howson/Lapierre (Oreca) –15 laps
7 Derani/Gonzalez/Yacaman (Ligier) –16 laps
8 Kaffer/Trummer (CLM) –16 laps
9 Dalziel/Heinemeier Hansson/Sharp (Ligier) –16 laps
10 Hamilton/Ragues/Webb (Morgan) –16 laps