08.18.2002
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 On the fastest track of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), Team Audi Sport North America achieved yet another hat-trick: After the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 12 Hour race at Sebring, Audi has also won the „Grand Prix at Mosport“ for the third time in a row. Like two weeks ago in Trois-Rivières, Rinaldo Capello and Tom Kristensen drove their Infineon Audi R8 to victory.
Podio While Johnny Herbert and Stefan Johansson made it an Audi 1-2 victory in their 2001-spec R8 entered by the Audi customer team Champion Racing, the Mosport race ended early on the 89th of 121 laps for Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro. Following an exciting fight between Biela/Pirro, JJ Lehto´s Cadillac and the eventual winning Infineon Audi R8 of Capello/Kristensen during the first half of the race, Emanuele Pirro spun off in second position in a fast right hand corner crashing at quite an obtuse angle against a concrete wall protected by tyres, just before his second scheduled pitstop. The safety cell of the Infineon Audi R8 withstood the enormous impact. An x-ray at the nearby hospital at Oshawa revealed that Emanuele Pirro had no injuries.

After their fifth victory in seven races, Audi continues to be on title course in the American Le Mans Series. Before the last three rounds at Laguna Seca, Miami and Road Atlanta, Audi driver Tom Kristensen is three points ahead of his teammate Rinaldo Capello. Johnny Herbert moved to third in the overall classification thanks to his second place at Mosport.

Rinaldo Capello: “Of course, our victory is overshadowed by Emanuele´s accident. It would have been an exciting fight until the very end. Today the track was very slippery and coming through traffic was the deciding factor. This time I was a little bit more lucky, I was able to take the lead after a few laps and to defend it until the end of my stint. Depending on the traffic, I could move away from Frank or he closed in on me. It was a difficult race.”

Dindo & Tom