24h Le Mans
Announced just a few days ago the long tail has been entrusted to Spaniard Marc Gené (winner of the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps WEC 2012), British driver Oliver Jarvis and Brazilian Lucas di Grassi. It has been optimised for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and runs alongside the standard R18 e-tron quattro n°1 (Marcel Fässler-André Lotterer-Benoît Tréluyer, qualified in pole position) and No.2 (Loïc Duval-Tom Kristensen-Allan McNish, in third).
Marc Gené (driver Audi R18 e-tron quattro n°3, Audi Sport Team Joest, LM P1) : "The front row of the grid is a good result. But on reflection, we could have achieved the best time as well. I was running on old tires all day and didn’t know what to expect on new tires. That’s why my first lap was relatively slow. I should have driven a third lap but we chose not to. That was my mistake. But Lucas di Grassi delivered a perfect performance today.”"
Oliver Jarvis (driver Audi R18 e-tron quattro n°3, Audi Sport Team Joest, LM P1) : "“Our performance capability is much higher than expected. Particularly on new tires the car feels good. But I don’t want to raise too many expectations because we’re driving with less downforce, so when the tires start degrading over the distance, the situation will become more difficult for us. So the race will be much harder for us than qualifying. Position two on the grid is a nice result.”"
Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich (Head of Audi Motorsport):"“It’s nice to have three cars at the front. It’s also good to see that car number 3, that is running with the Le Mans specification, is doing well on the track at Spa. Toyota was not as strong as we’d expected in qualifying but that means nothing with respect to the race because the times are close together. "
Jean-Philippe Doret / ACO
(Quotes from Audi Motorsport)
Photo : SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS (BELGIUM), 6 HOURS OF SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, QUALIFYING, 3rd MAY 2013. Could the long tail Audi R18 e-tron quattro be as fast in the race as in qualifying? We will know at 20:30 CET tonight at the chequered flag.
