at OscherslebenTeam Rosberg celebrated its best result in the FIA GT3 European Championship with the Audi R8 LMS at the home race at Oschersleben. The Neustadt/Weinstraße based squad recorded a fourth and second place finish with the French-Portuguese driver duo Nicolas Armindo/César in the third round of the season. "We lost the first race in qualifying,” analysed Team Principal Arno Zensen. "Nicolas Armindo was fastest when a yellow flag was displayed. We signalled him to slow down. However, the drivers following immediately behind set their fastest qualifying times under yellow. Nicolas was fourth in the end.” Nicolas Armindo lost one place at the start of the first race, and ran in fifth place for many laps. Although problems occurred with the traction control at the end of the race he nevertheless finished fourth. "We are satisfied with this result,” said Team Principal Zensen. Turbulent scenes in race two provided plenty of reason for discussion. "The second race was started behind the Safety Car because one side of the track was still wet,” reported Zensen. César Campanico was sixth as he handed over the car to team mate Nicolas Armindo during the mandatory pit stop. Armindo was running in second place a few laps before the finish when leader Christopher Mies (also in an Audi R8 LMS) was called into the pits for a drive-through penalty. The Frenchman could actually have taken the lead as a result. However, Mies remained on track till the finish and, in doing so, kept Armindo behind. When Mies caught up with his lapped team mate Lloyd La Marca he was allowed to pass, but not Nicolas Armindo. As a consequence of this action the Ford GT of Christoffer Nygaard and Florian Gruber also passed the Team Rosberg Audi R8 LMS. Nygaard and Gruber triumphed from Nicolas Armindo and César Campanico.
"Of course we are pleased with second place,” explained Team principle Arno Zensen. "After the pair of third places at Silverstone this is our best result in the FIA GT3 Championship. Nevertheless we would have preferred to have taken the first win for Audi with the R8 in the FIA GT3 European Championship, and we are a little disappointed that, of all the cars, it was our sister car that hindered us.”Arno Zensen was satisfied with the result of the second Audi R8 LMS driven by the Czechs Martin Matzke and Jiri Navratil. Following a solid 14th position in race one the pair finished tenth in race two and, in doing so, recorded their best result to date. The next FIA GT Championship event is on the agenda on 13 September in the Algarve in Portugal. Team Rosberg competes beforehand in the ADAC GT Masters on 4/5 July at the EuroSpeedway and on 22/23 August at the Nürburgring.
