Quotes after the race

Dr Wolfgang Ullrich (Head of Audi Motorsport): "We had quite a good pace today but we had to go to the limit – and this is very risky on a race track where overtaking is extremely difficult. Unfortunately both of our cars were delayed by contacts and accidents. The accident of Marco (Werner) was caused by a cut tyre – most likely caused by running over debris. This caused him impacting backwards very heavily. It was a great achievement of the team to repair the car thus allowing them to score points.”

Dindo Capello (Audi R10 TDI #1): "Looking at the race positively, we at least somehow claimed maximum points again but for me, it was one of the most disappointing races in the American Le Mans Series I’ve ever had. Allan (McNish) and I had more incidents in today’s race than we’ve experienced in three full seasons of racing. The car unusually was very difficult to drive but we both decided that we should nevertheless push hard throughout the race despite these problems. We have managed to extend our championship lead but on this occasion, mainly due to the bad luck of our ‘sister’ car.”

Allan McNish (Audi R10 TDI #1): "I made a good start to take third and inherited second place when Chris Dyson was penalized for a jump start. We knew that it would be a difficult race and traffic would be an important factor. I encountered the same backmarker twice, at exactly the same point of the circuit. The first time I spun after locking up the rears without damage but the second time, when I again dived down the inside, he moved over and we made contact damaging the nose of the Audi which effectively put us out of contention for overall honours.”

The results at Lime Rock

1 Briscoe/Maassen (Porsche) 174 laps in 2h 45m 16.615s
2 Bernhard/Dumas (Porsche) + 7.481s
3 Brabham (Acura/Honda) + 16.095s
4 Dyson/Smith (Porsche) - 1 lap
5 Capello/McNish (Audi R10 TDI) - 1 lap (1st in LM P1)
6 Wallace/Leitzinger (Porsche) - 2 laps
7 Herta/Franchitti (Acura/Honda) - 4 laps
8 Beretta/Gavin (Chevrolet) - 9 laps
9 O’Connell/Magnussen (Chevrolet) - 9 laps
10 van der Steurer/Pecorari (Radical) - 12 laps
...
23 Pirro/Werner (Audi R10 TDI) - 51 laps (4th in LM P1)

The race on the shortest track of the season was incident packed as expected. Taking advantage of the enormous torque of his V12 TDI engine, Allan McNish moved from seventh position on the grid to third at the start. After 30 minutes, the Scotsman was running second just behind the pole sitting LM P2 Porsche when he was blocked twice in a row by the same backmarker at the end of the start-finish straight. On the first occasion, the Audi driver spun dropping from second to fifth position. The second time, contact caused damage to the front of the Audi R10 TDI. The spins and front bodywork change cost McNish and Capello a total of three laps and any chance to fight for overall glory. From tenth position, the reigning champions fought their way back to fifth place making up two laps with the help of good strategy.

The race of the #2 Audi R10 TDI seemed to have come to a premature end just before the end of the first hour due to a specatcular accident when Marco Werner spun off the last corner at high speed due to a puncture impacting the guard rail heavily backwards. That the #2 R10 TDI was able to get back on the track 55 minutes later with applause of the specators was thanks to the strength of the car and the quick work of the mechanics from Team Audi Sport North America. Emanuele Pirro and Marco Werner were able to just complete the minimum distance of 70 percent to be classified finishing fourth in the LM P1 class and scoring ten precious points.