Disappointment at Green Hell

It was not the result Audi had been hoping for after excellent preparation for the 44th running of the Nürburgring 24 Hours. This gruelling event, which the brand has dominated in the past four years, showed once again why it is one of the toughest endurance races of its type and why even the best preparation can be thwarted over those long 24 hours.

For Audi, going into the race with two cars qualifying in the top 10, all of the indicators looked positive for another outstanding result, but a combination of appalling weather and numerous accidents created the ‘perfect storm’ to keep the brand with the four rings off the podium in 2016.

At the end of the race, the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT driven by Robin Frijns, Stuart Leonard, Edward Sandström and Frédéric Vervisch achieved a hard-fought eighth place while the team of Dennis and Marc Busch, Christian Mamerow and René Rast in the Twin Busch Motorsport car rounded out the top 10.

Extreme weather conditions played a part in the race which was stopped in its early stages due to torrential rain and hail. The already treacherous Nürburgring became impossible to drive and the race was delayed for nearly four hours before being restarted.

Not that conditions were much better during the restart, with visibility on some sections of the track down to a matter of metres.

Accident followed accident, with Alex Yoong in one of the Audi race experience cars finding trouble in foggy conditions, before last year’s race winner, Nico Müller in the Audi Sport Team WRT R8 LMS hit the guardrail in the 10th hour of the restart, after having to evade a car that spun and was literally facing into the oncoming traffic.

Even two-time race winner Markus Winkelhock was not immune from the carnage, his Audi Sport Team Phoenix car clipping the wheel of the Team Montaplast by Land-Motorsport car putting both cars out of the race.

Fastest in qualifying, Frank Stippler looked likely to record a top six result in the #5 Phoenix Racing entry, until another contact put paid to that result.

“The large crowd of fans has gotten used to Audi being in contention for the top spot with many other sports car brands in this legendary race year after year,” said Chris Reinke, Head of Audi Sport customer racing. “We’d have liked being in this position again, but that wasn’t possible this year, not least due to the balance of performance rating, among other things.”