24 Hours LeMans 2013

[DLSTR]

Audi Motorsport Blog: Le Mans: The ultimate guide to follow the 81st Le Mans 24 Hours

--This is the link to follow the race! Im trying my best to get over there this weekend and see the start and the first few hours. Weather looks great. This is a great link to follow the entire race. Audi are fave's. No shock there. Its a long race though and certainly anything can happen!--- Cheers, Dave

Audi aims for twelfth victory at Le Mans
Three Audi R18 e-tron quattro cars at season’s top event for sports cars
Eleven Audi victories clinched at 24 Hours in France
Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich: Challenge is particularly high this year
Ingolstadt, June 14, 2013 – On June 22/23, Audi will be competing at the classic 24-hour race at Le Mans for the 15th time. On the 90th anniversary of the world’s most important endurance race, the challenge is particularly great for the brand with the four rings, following the most recent changes in the regulations.

Le Mans 2013 will be a year of historic dimensions. The inaugural event of the endurance race was held 90 years ago. Audi is now competing for the 15th time. The current World Endurance Champions Marcel Fässler/André Lotterer/Benoît Tréluyer (CH/D/F) will enter the race in the number ‘1’ Audi R18 e-tron quattro. If successful, the three drivers, following two consecutive victories, could manage a hat-trick at La Sarthe. This was last achieved by another Audi trio: In 2000, 2001 and 2002, Frank Biela/Emanuele Pirro/Tom Kristensen (D/I/DK) remained unbeaten three times in succession.

Le Mans record winner Tom Kristensen (eight wins) expects to be in contention for a top result with his current team-mates Loïc Duval (F) and Allan McNish (GB) as well. In April, the trio won the season opener of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) at Silverstone. A year ago, Kristensen and McNish finished as the runners-up at Le Mans.

The driver line-up of the Audi R18 e-tron quattro designated as car number ‘3’ is aiming for the trophy as well: Marc Gené (E) was the overall winner at Le Mans in 2009. Oliver Jarvis (GB) was on podium at Le Mans for the first time last year and in March won the 12-hour race at Sebring (USA) in the R18 e-tron quattro. Lucas di Grassi (BR) is experiencing a premiere. The Brazilian is contesting his first Le Mans race and since making his WEC debut with Audi last September has finished his three races to date on the podium. In doing so, he continually benefited from the wealth of experience of his team-mates in the Audi driver squad that boasts an amazing combined tally of 17 Le Mans victories.

On the technology side, the team of Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich and Chris Reinke, Head of LMP, has rigorously prepared for the toughest race of the season as well. The Audi R18 e-tron quattro has been thoroughly revised with respect to the engine, the hybrid system, its ultra-lightweight design and in other areas. Furthermore, the diesel hybrid sports car will be running with optimized aerodynamics at Le Mans.

Audi is underscoring its role as a technology pioneer with the high-performance LED headlights featuring matrix-beam technology, the digital rear-view mirror with an AMOLED display and other forward-thinking detailed solutions. Audi has been transferring a wealth of innovations from motorsport to its products for more than 30 years. Customers profit from ideas such as quattro four-wheel drive and leading-edge TDI and TFSI engines as well as the most recent innovations in the field of active safety.

The score in the duel between FIA Endurance World Champion Audi and challenger Toyota is currently at 5-3. But although Audi has been unbeaten this year in sports prototype racing to date and set the best time on the test day on June 9, a question mark remains: More than ever before, it is uncertain whether the rating of diesel and gasoline engines is sufficiently balanced to ensure fair relative strengths over the distance. Since January, diesel sports cars have progressively been subjected to more severe restrictions.

Viewers can watch the race live on Eurosport and numerous other TV stations worldwide and on the internet at Erleben – including onboard footage and telemetry data of the three Audi R18 e-tron quattro cars. A live ticker is available on the Audi Sport app and Twitter. Audi provides background information on Facebook as well.

[Haboob]

I'm going to try and watch some of it.

Audi is amazing, but I think it's time for other brands to step up - it's no fun seeing the same team win it over and over and over.

Cap the $$, restrict the cars, something - make it more competitive.

[DLSTR]

Originally Posted by Haboob

I'm going to try and watch some of it.

Audi is amazing, but I think it's time for other brands to step up - it's no fun seeing the same team win it over and over and over.

Cap the $$, restrict the cars, something - make it more competitive.

Agree'd. The fault is not Audi. If you want to beat them - drive faster!

[Haboob]

Originally Posted by DLSTR

Agree'd. The fault is not Audi. If you want to beat them - drive faster!

You're correct, but some teams don't have the funding that Audi does, so at some point you either need to cap the spending or some sort of luxury tax that bleeds over to help the other teams become more competitive.

Pretty soon Audi is going to have a solar/wind powered car that still wins the LMP class.

[DLSTR]

Very sad news....

Le Mans 24 Hours - Simonsen dies after lap three crash - Yahoo! Eurosport UK

[DLSTR]

24-lemans.com - Chronos en direct

Nice Audi link with live video in English -- http://www.audi-motorsport.com/de/de...n-le-mans.html

[cossie1600]

Go Toyota, time to take down Audi

[Zoren 370]

Well Audi had to crawl all the way the top before they got to where they are now. They had there ups an down while battling it out with Peugeot!
Time will come till some one like Toyota to challenge the mighty Audi team!
Ferrari at one point in time was unbeatable at f1.
What comes around goes around in motor sports.

[Titan1080]

Originally Posted by Haboob

Cap the $$, restrict the cars, something - make it more competitive.

Isn't that what LMP2 is for? Besides, if Toyota isn't up to the task (they spent billions in F1 and never won a race) then I imagine Porsche will show up next year with the intent to show Audi who the boss is at Le Mans.... as long as they don't ram the Nissan ZEOD RC off the track!

[BGTV8]

Originally Posted by DLSTR

Very sad news....

Le Mans 24 Hours - Simonsen dies after lap three crash - Yahoo! Eurosport UK

Very sad, Alan was a nice guy, raced against him at the Magic Island meeting a few years ago at Philip Island when he was the professional driver alongside "gentleman-driver" Ted Huglin in Ted's LP560.

A terrifically talented driver, he had raced for Triple8 Race Engineering in V8SuperCars as an endurance co-driver as well as with Ted Huglin in the Australian GT Championships ........ he was known around the globe.

Another sad day in motorsport ...

[DLSTR]

Originally Posted by BGTV8

Very sad, Alan was a nice guy, raced against him at the Magic Island meeting a few years ago at Philip Island when he was the professional driver alongside "gentleman-driver" Ted Huglin in Ted's LP560.

A terrifically talented driver, he had raced for Triple8 Race Engineering in V8SuperCars as an endurance co-driver as well as with Ted Huglin in the Australian GT Championships ........ he was known around the globe.

Another sad day in motorsport ...

Very nice to hear of your experience with him. This type of news is rare but it does happen.

[Sscottfitz]

Looking like the Oak Racing folks are going to take the top two Podium positions for LM Proto 2 - and Nissan will have the entire P2 podium.

Congrats to Nissan!

[Sscottfitz]

.....and Congrats to Audi for yet another overall Le Mans win, and 9 wins for TK!

[DLSTR]

Originally Posted by Sscottfitz

.....and Congrats to Audi for yet another overall Le Mans win, and 9 wins for TK!

Great event. Sad with the loss of the driver but it is an amazing race. His family asked that Aston race on. A racer will honor that! LeMans is amazing!

[Nismo89]

Saddened by the loss of a driver.

also saddened Senna got taken out in the latter portion of the race.