BIC set for endurance race as Audi lift manufacturers title

Audi made motor racing history after being crowned manufacturers champions of the new FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).

Audi captured the prestigious title, amongst Le Mans Prototype competitors, after placing two teams on the podium at the Six Hours of Silverstone in the UK and plan to show off their prowess in Bahrain later this month.

The trio of Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer stormed to overall victory in an Audi R18 e-tron quattro, while the tandem of Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen steered their Audi R18 ultra to third.

That earned Audi enough points to help secure the manufacturers championship with still half of the season remaining.

Finishing the race as overall runners-up were Alex Wurz, Kazuki Nakajima and Nicolas Lapierre in a Toyota Racing TS030. They pushed their Audi rivals all the way to the chequered flag en route to capturing their first podium of the season.

Each of the top three teams, all in the race’s LMP1 class, completed 194 laps apiece. Fassler, Lotterer and Treluyer were 55.675secs clear of the field at the top of the final classification, while the Toyotas were 1min 14.427secs ahead of the third-placed Audi of McNish and Kristensen.

“It’s very satisfying to seal the manufacturers championship for Audi,” said Fassler, who has won back-to-back WEC races after his squad also claimed first at the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans last June. “Four races left and things can change again but for sure we’ve now had another step towards the goal we want to achieve at the end of the year.”
Toyota’s Wurz added: “To get second place is a great result. This is only our second race, eight months after our first roll-out and we are fighting against a competitor who has more than a decade of experience.”

The Six Hours of Silverstone marked the fourth of eight rounds in the 2012 WEC. More than 35,000 spectators flocked to the recent Silverstone circuit to attend the event.
Action in the WEC continues on September 14-15 at Sao Paulo in Brazil, before the series comes to the Middle East with the Six Hours of Bahrain at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir.

This festival of motorsport will be held on September 28-29.

Bahrain’s endurance spectacle will be the newest addition to the action-packed annual calendar of top-class events at BIC.

Apart from the action on the race track, where the WEC will be backed by leading local support championships, there will also be plenty of off-the-track entertainment for the whole family.

They include live stage shows, roaming performers, carnival games and children’s attractions among others.

Tickets to the Six Hours of Bahrain cost BD20 per person, while children aged 15 and younger can get in for half the price. Tickets can now be purchased at Batelco outlets at Bahrain City Centre and Seef Mall. They are also available online at the official BIC website or at the BIC Welcome Centre located next to the circuit’s main entrance.

All ticket holders will be able to watch the racing from either BIC’s Main Grandstand or Batelco Grandstand. They will also be able to take advantage of the Open Paddock to get an up-close look at everything that goes on behind-the-scenes.

For more information, visit www.bahraingp.com or www.fiawec.com or call the hotline on 17450000.