Photo : Guénolé TREHOREL

 

Before competing in another 24-hour race at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit (July 26th and 27th), Marcel Fässler revisits the 2014 victory that was a longtime coming.

The three of you celebrated a hard-fought victory at Le Mans. How do you rate this success, looking back on it after three weeks?
Marcel Fässler: "At the beginning of the race, clinching victory seemed almost unrealistic for us, considering how fierce the competition was with Toyota and Porsche. Plus, we had two other strong cars in our own team. The challenge is completely different every year, as each race at Le Mans has something special. Victory is sweet – and quite honestly: there is a risk of getting hooked on achieving further success."

None of the three manufacturers managed a flawless race. How tough was the competition?
"There are highs and lows in any race but this time they were really extreme. Toyota was leading for a long time but then they had a defect on track that couldn’t be repaired. Suddenly, we were leading with a three-lap advantage. Then a turbocharger failure caused us to drop to third place – we were lacking two laps. I was sure that all was lost, so the joy of having won in spite of this was even greater."

Last Wednesday, you visited the Audi plant in Ingolstadt and the Neckarsulm location on Thursday. What was the response by the employees?
"As part of the Audi brand, we received a very enthusiastic welcome. We notably got to meet many people from Audi Sport who design our race cars but are never at the race track. It was an honor for us that everybody is so proud of the Le Mans victory. We could feel how much the Audi family is backing us. I’m happy to have been part of this brand since 2010. Our next 24-hour race with Audi is coming up at the end of July – that’s when we’re going to battle for victory with the R8 LMS ultra at Spa."

Jean-Philippe Doret / ACO - Translation by Nikki Ehrhardt / ACO
(Audi Motorsport press release)

Photo: LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES, 24 HOURS OF LE MANS, SUNDAY JUNE 15 2014, FINISH. Marcel Fässler celebrates his third win at Le Mans, a few moments after his teammate received the checkered flag at the wheel of the No. 2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro.