Sunday 8 May 2011

Honorary award for Audi racer Timo Bernhard




Honorary award for Audi racer Timo Bernhard


  • Entry in the Golden Book of the city of Homburg/Saar
  • Emanuele Pirro entertains VIP guests at the ILMC
  • Audi racers with new websites
Ingolstadt, May 8, 2011 - Great honor for Audi racer Timo Bernhard: The 2010 Le Mans winner was asked to enter his name in the "Golden Book" of the city of Homburg/Saar.

Lord Mayor Karlheinz Schöner also presented Timo Bernhard with an honorary award in the sport category for his special achievements in the 2010 season (victory at Le Mans, ADAC Motorsportsman of the Year). Bernhard was born in Homburg/Saar and attended high school there as well. Inspired by the accolade, the 30-year-old clinched his first pole position while serving Audi at Spa-Francorchamps on Friday.

Nice gesture: Le Mans record winner Tom Kristensen received a gift weighing more than 20 kilograms on the oocasion of the 1000-kilometer race at Spa: The French author Jean-Marc Teissedre presented the Audi factory driver with a special edition of his historic treatise on the Le Mans 24 Hours.

New job: About 250 guests witnessed the second round of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC) at Spa-Francorchamps at the Audi Lounge directly above the pits. They were aptly entertained by five-time Le Mans winner Emanuele Pirro, who passes on this professional knowlege to Audi’s VIP guests during the ILMC races this year.

New fleet: This year Audi again provides the Official Cars for the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup. At Spa the four Audi RS 5 and four Audi S4 cars were handed over to the organizers of the sports car series.

No break: For Audi Sport Team Joest, the countdown to the Le Mans 24 Hours seamlessly continues. After the 1000-kilometer race at Spa the tream stayed in Belgium to practice changing components on the new Audi R18 TDI and pit stops.

Success in Japan: With a victory in his pocket Benoît Tréluyer traveled to the 1000-kilometer race at Spa. The Frenchman won the opening round of the Japanese Super GT Championship at Fuji.

Flowers, windmills, water: The Netherlands’ most beautiful sides will provide the setting for the DTM press conference at the Keukenhof in Lisse on Tuesday. At the media reception Audi will promote the second round at Zandvoort to be staged next weekend with Timo Scheider.

Surfer’s paradise: Filipe Albuquerque, Mattias Ekström, Miguel Molina and Rahel Frey present themselves to their fans on the world-wide-web on new websites. The addresses: www.filipealbuquerque.net, www.mattiasekstrom.com, www.miguelmolina.net, www.rahelfrey.ch. Miguel Molina is even featured in four languages on his fan site: German, English, Catalan and Spanish.

Success at the season opener: Enzo Ide and Greg Franchi in the Audi R8 LMS clinched a victory on the first race weekend of the FIA GT3 European Championship at Portimão. After the Belgian duo had already been the most successful Audi squad with a ninth-place finish on Saturday, the drivers from the WRT secured first place on Sunday thanks to a skillful pit stop strategy during a safety car period.

Podium places in Portugal: Ni Amorim and César Campaniço clinched two second places in their Audi R8 LMS on the race weekend of the Portuguese GT Championship at Portimão. At the second round the drivers from the Novadriver team had even started from the pole position but two drive-through penalties destroyed their hopes for victory.

A brief interview with ... Allan McNish

How would you summarize the Audi R18 TDI’s race debut?
"It was very interesting to drive the Audi R18 TDI on track together with many other cars and in racing conditions for the first time. The switch to the closed-wheel car was less difficult than expected. All drivers managed to get through traffic pretty well. Vision was better than expected and the cockpit cooling worked well too. And we were able to push throughout the race."

What is your assessment of the R18 TDI after the debut?
"In terms of pure performance the car is obviously good. It has been a long time that we have led the time sheets on a race weekend straight from the start. In the past, we tended to improve during the course of the weekend and progressively approached our rivals. So the R18 TDI has a lot of potential and it was great that we clinched the top three grid positions."

What deficits are there in your opinion?
"We’ve got to work on consistency, which is normal though in this phase of a new car development. The car is fast. Now, we’ve got to manage putting this speed on the track at any time. We’ll vigorously work on this before Le Mans."

Coming up next week

May 10 Zandvoort (NL), DTM press conference
May 14 Nürburgring (D), VLN Endurance Championship, round 3
May 15 Zandvoort (NL), DTM, round 2
May 15 Sachsenring (D), ADAC GT Masters, round 2
May 15 Anderstorp (S), Swedish GT Series, round 1
May 15 Dijon (F), French GT Championship, round 3
May 15 Snetterton (GB), British GT championship, round 3

Audi Motorsport.

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