Three Podiums for the Audi R8 LMS

Podium at Silverstone: Belgian Audi Club Team WRT clinched its first trophy in the 2019 Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup. Following a difficult opening round at Monza, the race weekend at Silverstone was far more fortunate. On the grid, Dries Vanthoor/Ezequiel Perez Companc/Alex Riberas in sixth position were the second-best of eight squads driving an Audi R8 LMS. During the three-hour race, the trio improved to third place.

Podium finish in Thailand: Two teams from Audi Sport customer racing celebrated their first podium finishes on the second race weekend of the Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia in Thailand. After Audi Sport Asia Team Absolute Racing with Weiron Tan/Martin Rump just barely missed a podium finish by one second in the season opener at Sepang, the Malaysian-Estonian driver duo in the first race at Buriram clinched third place. They had started from fifth on the grid. In race two, Audi Sport Asia Team TSRT with David Chen/André Couto battled its way forward to third position. Couto had started from 18th, improved to 13th place on lap one, but then dropped to 16th in the intense midfield battles when he turned over his car to David Chen at the driver change. The Chinese fought back to sixth position up until a safety car period, improved to fourth after the race was released again and ultimately advanced to third position following the disqualification of another entrant.

Driver line-up for the Japanese event of the Intercontinental GT Challenge: The list of drivers of the Audi teams for the Suzuka 10 Hours has been set. Audi Sport Team Absolute Racing will take part in the fourth round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge from August 23–25 with Christopher Haase, Christopher Mies and Markus Winkelhock. The entry from Audi Sport Team WRT will have Kelvin van der Linde, Dries Vanthoor and Frédéric Vervisch as the drivers. The Japanese Audi Team Hitotsuyama squad relies on the trio of Richard Lyons, Alessio Picariello and Ryuichiro Tomita.

Audi RS 3 LMS (TCR)

Home round for Niels Langeveld in WTCR – FIA World Touring Car Cup: Just one week after the third round the fourth of ten events in the worldwide touring car racing series is coming up at Zandvoort. Audi Sport driver Niels Langeveld is traveling there with a double dose of motivation: For him, it is a home round because he lives only 25 kilometers away from the race track. On the dune circuit he is planning to continue the good form he showed at the Slovakiaring. There he scored his first points and was the best driver of an Audi RS 3 LMS in two of the three races. Following strong fightbacks, Gordon Shedden scored in all three races last weekend as well. His teammate, Jean-Karl Vernay, as the best Audi Sport driver in sixth position of the standings, intends to continue to make up ground as well. Last year, he won a race at Zandvoort. Finally, Frédéric Vervisch clinched the first victory of the Audi RS 3 LMS this season at the Slovakiaring – a result that whets the appetite for more.

Coming up next week

17–19/05 Pau (F), rounds 3 and 4, GT4 France
17–19/05 Sydney (AUS), rounds 1 to 3, TCR Australia
17–19/05 Mosport (CDN), rounds 7 and 8, Pirelli GT4 America
17–19/05 Mosport (CDN), rounds 5 and 6, Pirelli GT4 America SX/GT4 East
17–19/05 Most (CZ), rounds 3 and 4, ADAC GT Masters
17–19/05 Most (CZ), rounds 3 and 4, ADAC TCR Germany
17–19/05 Most (CZ), rounds 3 and 4, Spezial Tourenwagen Trophy
17–19/05 Misano (I), rounds 3 and 4, TCR Italy
17–19/05 Mosport (CDN), rounds 1 and 2, Canadian Touring Car Championship
17–19/05 Red Bull Ring (A), rounds 5 and 6, Eset V4 Cup
17–19/05 Red Bull Ring (A), rounds 3 and 4, FIA CEZ
18–19/05 Snetterton (GB), rounds 3 and 4, British GT Championship
18–19/05 Ningbo (CN), round 1, China Endurance Championship
18–19/05 NRing (RUS), rounds 3 and 4, TCR Russia
18–19/05 Zandvoort (NL), rounds 10 to 12, WTCR – FIA World Touring Car Cup
18–19/05 Autopolis (J), rounds 1 and 2, TCR Japan
18–19/05 Nürburgring (D), qualification race, 24-hour race