Behind the winner, Audi managed a cohesive team performance in a field with seven manufacturers in the top ten places and 58 participating driver teams overall. In addition to number 32, three other Audi R8 LMS cars finished in the top ten. Robin Frijns, Dennis Lind and Nico Müller piloted the number 37 car from Audi Sport Team WRT. Minor setbacks repeatedly cost the crew time: A fuel shortage forced Dennis Lind to make an unscheduled stop in the pit lane at night, a puncture later interrupted Nico Müller’s rhythm. After a drive-through penalty in the closing stages, the team crossed the finish line in fourth place.
Audi Sport Team Saintéloc followed in sixth position. Christopher Haase and Markus Winkelhock, who had won the 2017 race with the French team, shared the cockpit with Patric Niederhauser this time. A drive-through penalty during the night prevented a better result. Audi Sport Team Attempto managed a similar good recovery as Audi Sport Team WRT. The tire poker with slicks in the rain in the second hour of the race didn’t work out. Instead, Christopher Mies dropped back to position 52. Together with Mattia Drudi and Dennis Marschall, the German still improved to ninth position in the course of 22 hours.
In addition to the four GT sports cars supported by Audi Sport, four of the five private R8 LMS cars also crossed the finish line. Attempto Racing’s performance was remarkable: Alex Aka, Max Hofer and Fabien Lavergne were not only fourth best of 17 teams in the Silver Cup classification. In 15th place overall, they also left numerous more experienced Pro-Am teams behind. Team WRT finished sixth and eighth in the Silver Cup, while Saintéloc Racing was tenth.
While numerous customer teams in Europe and Australia will start the hot phase of their title fights in the next few weeks, Audi Sport customer racing’s schedule includes the 8-hour race at Indianapolis as the second round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge only from October 15 to 17. Audi leads the manufacturers standings with a 15-point advantage over Ferrari. Between 2016 and 2018, the brand with the four rings clinched five titles in this only global GT3 racing series.
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