The Nordschleife is not known to be kind on road cars, let alone race cars. To imagine the kind of terrain that the Green Hell comprises of, and to imagine the amount of engineerign that goes into a race car in order to keep it planted- it boggles in the mind. But somehow Audi has managed to pull through, and with the all-new Audi R8 LMS no doubt. Christopher Mies and Nico Müller triumphed in the second VLN race ahead of their team mates Pierre Kaffer and Laurens Vanthoor and, in doing so, took a clear victory for the Audi R8 LMS in only its third race.
In the changeable weather conditions, endurance racing specialist Christopher Mies and Audi DTM driver Nico Müller initially took the lead after ten race laps. The lead exchanged hands several times as they staged a thrilling battle with the best Mercedes-Benz. From lap 18 onwards, the German-Swiss duo gradually increased its lead before finally crossing the finish line after four hours with a 1m 27s advantage over Laurens Vanthoor and Pierre Kaffer. It was the first victory on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife for the Audi Sport Team WRT from Belgium.
At the season highlight on May16-17, four new Audi R8 LMS will face up to several dozen GT3 cars in a starter field of almost a 160 participants. Audi has been testing the new GT3 sportscar, which already complies with the new GT3 regulations, since spring 2014.
The races during the 2015 season are specifically to put the Audi R8 LMS through an extensive test program under the toughest conditions. Like its successful predecessor, many of the parts used on the new Audi R8 LMS are identical to the new production R8, which was launched in Geneva at the same as the racecar and that is launched on the market in Summer.
Congratulations, Audi! I saw it, was fantastic!