Le Mans 24 Hours race winner Allan McNish is bracing himself for a backlash from Audi’s main competitor at the Nürburgring on Sunday (17 Aug).
McNish, 38, earned the German car manufacturer an eighth Le Mans victory (14-15 Jun) but in doing so thwarted Peugeot’s hopes of achieving glory on home soil.
The Scotsman begins the 1,000km (621 mile) race on the 3.19-mile track near Cologne well aware Audi’s French rivals will be seeking revenge in the 195-lap race which marks the pioneering Audi R10 TDI sports-prototype’s race début in Germany.
“I am sure Peugeot will be looking for revenge after a Scot, Dane and Italian in a German car went to France and took the coveted Le Mans winners’ trophy that they craved back to Germany again,” stated Allan.
“Peugeot are unbeaten in the previous three Le Mans Series races although Audi have run them very close. Although Le Mans is the big one to win for a driver and a manufacturer, I personally don’t want to end the 2008 season with just one win under my belt.”McNish finished first and second in the corresponding Le Mans Series races in 2004 and ’05 driving a petrol-engined Audi R8 before winning the American Le Mans Series titles for the “factory” Audi team in a diesel-engined sportscar in 2006 and ’07.
Allan added: “The Nürburgring 1000km is always an interesting race. The original track was created back in 1920 and so has a lot of history, the race is always ultra-competitive while the ever changing weather often plays a large part in terms of the race outcome. It can be sunny and then rain five minutes later, back to sunshine and then rain again. It is also a very difficult place to predict the weather.”
McNish and regular co-driver Dindo Capello (Italy) will be hoping for a change of LMS fortune after posting fifth (Barcelona), sixth (Monza) and fourth (Spa) place finishes. Their Audi Sport Team Joest team-mates Alexandre Prémat (France) and Mike Rockenfeller (Germany) lie second in the LM P1 classification having finished second in the three previous races with only Silverstone (14 Sep) remaining after the Nürburgring race.
Allan concluded: “I have enjoyed some incredible races at the Nürburgring in the past with Audi. Pierre Kaffer and I won in 2004 for Audi UK after a race long battle and then in 2005, we battled hard with Creation only to loose the win 15 minutes from the end to Zytek. This year I am looking forward to the incredible fight we’re likely to have with Peugeot plus Aston Martin and the rest.”
Timetable:Friday – 1140-1240 Practice 1, 1525-1625 Practice 2Saturday – 0845-0945 Practice 3, 1305-1325 QualifyingSunday – 0740-0800 Warm-up, 1105 Race* Times are BST and are -1hr “local” Central European Time.
