Audi will start the 78th Le Mans 24 Hours of Le Mans (12-13 June) with three diesel-powered racing sports cars. The Audi squad will be spearheaded by Britain’s Allan McNish plus Dindo Capello (I) and Le Mans record winner Tom Kristensen (Den).

Audi has been competing in the 24-hour race at Le Mans since 1999 and, having started just eleven of the events, has won the French endurance classic eight times.

The first race for the “R15 plus” will be on April 11 in the 8-hour race at Le Castellet (France). As a dress rehearsal for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Audi will contest the 1000-kilometer race at Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium) on May 9 with three cars. After Le Mans, Audi plans to participate in the newly incepted Le Mans Intercontinental Cup featuring races in Great Britain (Silverstone), the United States (Road Atlanta) and Asia with two R15 TDI cars. The Cup will precede a worldwide racing series for Le Mans sports cars to be staged from the 2011 season onward.

#7 Dindo Capello (I)/Tom Kristensen (DK)/Allan McNish (GB)
#8 Marcel Fässler (CH)/André Lotterer (D)/Benoît Treluyer (F)
#9 Timo Bernhard (D)/Romain Dumas (F)/Mike Rockenfeller (D)

AUDI AG wrote an important chapter in the history of motor racing with its historic triumph in the 2006 Le Mans 24 Hour race. The Audi R10 TDI was the first diesel car to win arguably the toughest car race in the world. In front of a record crowd of 235,000 spectators, Frank Biela (Germany), Emanuele Pirro (Italy) and Marco Werner (Germany).

Although the roll-out of the new Audi R10 TDI took place only 200 days before the race, the victorious Diesel sportscar ran as reliably for 24 hours as its predecessor, the R8 that scored five Le Mans victories.

Meanwhile Dindo Capello (Italy), Tom Kristensen (Denmark) and Allan McNish (Scotland) achieved third place overall at Le Mans that year, the trio having scored a debut race win in the R10 TDI in the Sebring 12 Hours three months earlier.

Audi also become the first manufacturer to win all races in a season in the LM P1 class of the American Le Mans Series. Dindo Capello and Allan McNish clinched the Drivers’ title, winning seven times outright and eight LM P1 class wins which also brought the Teams and Manufacturers titles once more in their R8 (using FSI petrol injection technology) and R10 TDI.

Further race victories at Le Mans followed in 2007 & ’08 for the R10 TDI. Additionally, the Audi R10 TDI won the American Le Mans Series (2007 & ’08) and also the Manufacturer’s title in the European-based Le Mans Series in 2008.

Of course, this same race-winning TDI technology is also available across the entire Audi range.

Audi became the first manufacturer in the 25-year history of the DTM to win the title for a third consecutive year in 2009 when Timo Scheider successfully retained the Driver’s “crown” in his A4 DTM.

Four race wins in the most popular international touring car racing series staged in five different European countries brought the Audi A4 DTM victory tally to 25 since 2004. Audi is one of the most successful brands in DTM history with seven championship titles and 52 race wins.

Britain’s Oliver Jarvis (Cambs) and Katherine Legge (Surrey) are again “factory” drivers for Audi Sport in 2010. Jarvis (26) takes the place of Le Mans record winner Tom Kristensen in Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline to make his debut in the most popular international touring car series in a current-specification Audi A4 after a two-year "apprenticeship” in a prior-spec model.

Meanwhile Legge (29), who contested the series for Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline in 2009, switches to Audi Sport Team Rosberg.

Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline: Mattias Ekström (S), Oliver Jarvis (GB), Miguel Molina (E) *, Timo Scheider (D), Martin Tomczyk (D)

Audi Sport Team Phoenix: Alexandre Prémat (F) *, Mike Rockenfeller (D) *

Audi Sport Team Rosberg: Katherine Legge (GB) *, Markus Winkelhock (D) *

* Audi A4 DTM model year 2009 (R14)

2010 DTM calendar

25 April Hockenheimring (D)
23 May Valencia (E)
06 June EuroSpeedway Lausitz (D)
04 July Norisring (D)
08 August Nürburgring (D)
22 August Zandvoort (NL)
05 September Brands Hatch (GB)
19 September Oschersleben (D)
17 October Hockenheimring (D)
31 October Shanghai (CN)*
* Subject to contract negotiations

The new GT3 sports car from AUDI AG scored 23 victories and three champion’s titles in its first racing season in 2009.

Audi Sport will limit sales to a maximum of 20 vehicles for the European market in 2010. The first British-based team to run the R8 LMS, United Autosports, contests the FIA GT3 European Championship.

Meanwhile Audi will again support its customer teams at the Nürburgring 24 Hours (May 15/16).

The name of the R8 is legend: The R8 sports prototype won the Le Mans 24 Hours five times between 2000 and 2005 and celebrated 63 wins from 80 starts.

The first thoroughbred production sports car from Audi with the same name, the Audi R8 unveiled in 2006, carries the genes of the triumphant racing prototypes. Its many prizes awarded by juries and readers’ polls, in which the young R8 pulled away from reputable competitors, confirm its status as a dream sports car.

The R8 LMS bears a close resemblance to the production car and derived from a chassis taken from the production line.