With a victory and a one-two finish, Audi Sport customer racing celebrated a convincing start to the new GT2 European Series. All three customer teams relying on the Audi R8 LMS GT2 recorded podium finishes – two of them even victories. In Europe and Asia, three other Audi Sport customer racing models clinched a total of ten trophies.
The Audi R8 LMS GT2 started to its first European season with the best possible result. In the two inaugural races of the new GT2 European Series, the most powerful model in the Audi Sport customer racing lineup with 470 kW (640 hp) has achieved two victories.
Three teams relied on the Audi R8 LMS GT2 at the royal park of Monza. Initially, Team High Class Racing put in the best performance. Anders Fjordbach started the first race from pole position, initially losing one place which he quickly regained. At the driver change towards the middle of the 50-minute race, the Dane handed over his car to teammate Mark Patterson with an eight-second lead. The American increased the gap to 16.6 seconds by the finish. The first GT2 winners on European soil are two successful returnees to an R8 cockpit: both privateer drivers had already clinched successes with the GT3 version of the model in earlier years. In the second race, two Audi R8 LMS GT2 cars moved to the front of the field after the pit stops. In the end, the PK Carsport team with Bert Longin/Peter Guelinckx won. Second place with a gap of only 0.65 seconds went to LP Racing with Luca Pirri/Stéphane Ratel. In the standings, Patterson/Fjordbach share the lead with Guelinckx/Longin with 37 points after the first of five events.
Phoenix Racing was the best Audi customer team on the Nordschleife in the second round of the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie. The Dane Nicki Thiim celebrated third place in the Audi R8 LMS on his 32nd birthday with his Italian driver colleague Michele Beretta ahead of Phoenix teammates Vincent Kolb/Frank Stippler. In the Eastern European Eset Cup, Petr Kačírek in the Audi R8 LMS finished third in the GT3 class in the second sprint at the season opener at the Hungaroring.
Source. Audi
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