1000Km of Spa: Audi R18 TDI sweeps qualification

Posted: 06 May 2011 09:27 AM PDT

Audi R18 1000 km Spa Le Mans20110506

Gallery after the jump!

With a weekend full of flags, it happened once again during LMP qualification. With 6 minutes remaining the Oak Racing, Oak Pescarolo – Judd was involved in a huge off with Matthieu Lahaye at the wheel. With Audi Motorsport heading out early in the session, the three R18 TDI’s were able to put one more stamp on the weekend’s results. Ironically, it would be the cars designated numbers predicting the outcome.

The three Audi’s would go back and forth, swapping the top three times. At the wheel’s would be Timo Bernhard, Andre Lotterer and Mr. Le Mans, Tom Kristensen.

Lotterer would be first to take top spot, posting a 2:01.788 ahead of Bernhard and Kristensen.

Kristensen would move into second with a 2:02.145. Timo Bernhard would be next to top the charts with a 2:01.502.

Just as we were wondering if anyone could move into the 2:00 range, the Oak Racing Pescarolo car had its off.

During the post-qualifying interview, Bernhard would say Audi’s strategy was to go out early and specifically avoid any incidents. The weekend has been riddled with flags and Audi’s strategy team knew this.

02 oneighturbo LMS 1000KmSpa Loek 050511

For Peugeot, it was a different story. Their strategist was not on this page and it hurt them bad in the end. The factory LMP 908′s waited and waited and waited… Marc Gene was the only one to post a time and a slow one at that. A 2:10.725 would land him in 13th. Simon Pagenaud would muster up a 2:12.108 for 18th and Sarrazin nailed a 0:00.000 for 50th. Ouch.

The top Peugeot performance went to the Oreca Matmut, non-factory LMP car. Nicolas Lapierre squeezed into 4th with a 2:05.482. This was three seconds behind the Audi R18 TDI of Kristensen and only one second clear of the top petrol car.

Excellent job from Audi and the debut of the R18 TDI. However, in the past we know Peugeot likes to go out hard for pole positions. Audi has no data from them now to measure up against.

Remember, the race is 6 hors long and ANY thing can happen. There will be over 50 cars on track! We’ve seen a lot of flags over the past few days. One flag will bring the filed together very quickly.

Spa-Francochamps is a very exciting circuit. It has 21 turns over 4.3 miles. Eau Rouge & Raidillon are insane at speed!

Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps