Skip to main content

Audi Wins Macau GT Race Upside Down

Winning a race is hard. There are surprisingly few drivers who can even lay claim to winning a top-level professional race, and nearly none can say that they’ve won a race from the roof of their car, but following this weekend’s FIA GT Race at Macau, Laurens Vanthoor managed to win upside down.

The Macau leg of the FIA GT series was weird race all over, in which only four laps were run. The day started well, though, for Vanthoor who took off from first place on the starting grid.

After an accident involving an understeering Mercedes and a barrier, which, surprisingly, the Mercedes won, the race had to be stopped so that crews could fix the wall.

It took the race team a while to fix the wall, but eventually the race was ready to restart. It wasn’t long, though, before Vanthoor was overtaken by a Porsche. On the subsequent corner, Vanthoor ran over the inner curb, which unsettled the car, sending him oversteering into the outside wall at the corner exit.

Vanthoor’s R8 LMS tried to climb the wall, but was rebuffed, and eventually did a back flip to register its displeasure. A few hundred feet down the track, the R8, now on its roof, ground to a stop and Vanthoor got out unharmed.

Laurens Vanthoor

Because of how long it took to repair the wall after the first crash earlier in the race, organizers had no choice but to red flag the race and declare the leader of the last completed lap—Vanthoor—the winner.

Predictably, Vanthoor wasn’t exactly jubilant on the podium.

“I’m happy and relieved about not having been injured,” said Vanthoor. “I made a mistake and caused an accident, and won nonetheless. I’m still not quite sure about how to rate this victory.”

Motorsports / DTM 5. race Moskau

Audi Sport’s head of customer racing, on the other hand, saw the silver lining.

“The most important thing for us is that Laurens [Vanthoor] is okay,” said Reinke. “This shows how safe our cars are. It’s arguably a little strange to win this way. It was a very intensive race. Fortune and misfortune always play a role in Macau, but one of the prerequisites for success was the fact that we were in contention for the top spot in all sessions. That’s why I’m happy about the title in the FIA GT World Cup.”

This  story first appeared on fourtitude.com

The post Audi Wins Macau GT Race Upside Down appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2geQWVP
via IFTTT

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Saying Goodbye to the CC V6

For all its size and its global reach, Volkswagen is still, in many ways, a deeply human company. There was, for instance, the Bugatti Veyron an ego project if ever there was one. Then the purchase of Ducati, a move most called folly. And then there was the Phaeton, the Volkswagen that most folks can’t afford. Not only were these moves all strange, I’m sure that they made VW’s accountants furious. None of them made good business sense, but they were all deeply interesting and they all are evidence of the heart that beats at the center of VW. Among these follies is the CC, a car that everyone agrees is rakishly handsome, but that no one really wanted to buy. The car couldn’t last, but the world is brighter for its having been in it. With the approach debut of the Arteon, it seems like a good time to look back on its sadly departing predecessor. The version I drove, because I live in Canada, is a V6 Wolfsburg Edition, which apparently isn’t available in the States. Nor is the V6, not as...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mitsubishi admits it lied about MPG ratings for all vehicles in Japan

Filed under: Government/Legal , Green , Mitsubishi , Fuel Efficiency , Japan Mitsubishi says its shady fuel-economy test practices may have been used on all vehicles it sells and has sold in Japan. Continue reading Mitsubishi admits it lied about MPG ratings for all vehicles in Japan Mitsubishi admits it lied about MPG ratings for all vehicles in Japan originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 11 May 2016 12:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink  |  Email this  |  Comments from Autoblog Volkswagen http://ift.tt/21X3bHv
Post a Comment
Read more

More 3.0-Liter TDI Settlement Details Expected by January 31

Volkswagen and the TDI Plaintiff’s Steering Committee were in court today for another status conference following the agreement in principal reached earlier this week. Little new information was given at the conference held before Judge Charles Breyer today, but the court ordered the parties to develop a formal settlement agreement, class action notices, and a class notice plan by January 31, 2017. For now, though, owners still don’t know how much to expect in compensation. Elizabeth Cabraser, lead Counsel for the Plaintiff’s Steering Committee reaffirmed in a statement today that the compensation would be “substantial.” The potential cost to Volkswagen is widely reported to exceed $1 billion, though, with an additional $225 million going into an environmental trust to help offset excess emissions. Buy back offers are still only expected for the oldest 20,000 of the roughly 80,000 VW Group vehicles sold in America with the 3.0-liter TDI engine. Those vehicles are mostly SUVs, like ...
Post a Comment
Read more