Disappointment for Audi in Nürburgring 24 Hours

At the Nürburgring, Audi Sport Team Land was battling for a podium finish up until Sunday morning. Kelvin van der Linde, one of last year’s winners with Audi, was engaged in a thrilling battle for third position with Aston Martin when falling victim to the changeable weather. In the Hohe Acht track section, the South African, running on intermediate tires, touched the guard rail and lost three laps due to the repair. Together with his brother Sheldon, Christopher Mies and René Rast he achieved sixth position in the end, trailed directly by Audi Sport Team Phoenix with Christopher Haase/Nico Müller/Frank Stippler/Frédéric Vervisch. Audi Sport Team BWT in its first participation in the Nürburgring 24 Hours finished twelfth with Christopher Haase/Nico Müller/Mike Rockenfeller/Markus Winkelhock. Team BWT Mücke Motorsport with Marcel Fässler/Christer Jöns/Pierre Kaffer/Stefan Mücke achieved position 14. The endurance racing experts of Car Collection Motorsport with their privateer drivers defied the adverse conditions as well. Adrien de Leener, Simon Trummer, Christopher Friedrich and Pierre Kaffer saw the checkered flag in 20th position. The sister car of Stefan Aust/Christian Bollrath/Ronnie Saurenmann/Peter Schmidt as the second-best Pro-Am team took position 56. Audi Sport Team WRT, the 2015 winning team, retired after an accident. 

The good performances shown by several customer teams in the classes went unrewarded. Team Phoenix Racing was leading the SP 8 class up until the tenth hour with the Audi R8 LMS GT4. However, in the eleventh hour, the strong junior quartet of Milan Dontje/Xiaole He/Max Hofer/Nicolaj Møller Madsen retired with a powertrain defect. In the hard-fought TCR category, Team Prosport-Performance GmbH took the lead in the sixth hour of racing. The seasoned driver lineup of Christoph Breuer/Jürgen Nett/Markus Oestreich/Kenneth Østvold in the Audi RS 3 LMS was running in front up until the 15th hour of racing, remaining within striking distance up until the 18th hour in second position when a defect ended their race. Meanwhile another Audi Sport customer racing team achieved a positive result in this class. Like last year, Bonk Motorsport clinched a podium finish. Hermann Bock/Max Partl/Rainer Partl/Volker Piepmeyer in the Audi RS 3 LMS of the team based in Münster finished third. 

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