Mattias Ekström makes up ground One-two victory for Audi Sport Italia Stuck and Stippler second despite accident Two victories for the R8 LMS in Spain Audi drivers in the points

Mattias Ekström makes up ground DTM: Audi showed a strong performance at its "home round" in the DTM: in front of 132,000 spectators (throughout the weekend) at the Norisring Mattias Ekström pushed forward from position five on the grid to second and in the end missed victory by a mere 0.591 seconds. With five Audi A4 DTM cars in the points, Audi achieved its best Norisring showing since 2005. By clinching second place, Mattias Ekström made up two points to the leader of the standings, Bruno Spengler.One-two victory for Audi Sport Italia GT3 Italy: One-two victory for the Audi Sport Italia team: at the third round of the Italian GT3 Championship Audi drivers Filipe Albuquerque and Marco Bonanomi triumphed in round one with a lead of 2.584 seconds in front of their team colleagues Rinaldo Capello and Ginaluca Giraudi. Bonanomi was running in third place up to the final lap, the Italian managed the crucial overtaking maneuver only in the final turn. In round two both Audi R8 LMS cars finished in extreme heat in fourth and fifth place. Stuck and Stippler second despite accidentVLN: Hans-Joachim Stuck and Frank Stippler in the Audi R8 LMS fielded by Phoenix Racing finished the fifth round of the VLN Endurance Championship at the Nürburgring as the runners-up. Just a few minutes before the end of the four-hour distance, Hans-Joachim Stuck had an accident when rain was setting in. The Austrian by choice suffered a brain concussion and was taken to a hospital for a medical check. Race control stopped the race. Since over 60 percent of the racing distance had been completed the fifth round of the season was rated with the full point score and Stuck/Stippler classified in second place despite the accident. Two victories for the R8 LMS in SpainGT3 Spain: The Portuguese drivers César Campaniço and João Pedro Figueiredo triumphed in both rounds of the third race weekend of the Spanish GT Championship at Albacete. In the Audi R8 LMS of the Novadriver Total team from Portugal they won the first race with a one-lap lead in the GTS category. In the night race that followed just a few hours later their advantage over their immediate rivals was just 2.3 seconds. After a total of three consecutive wins, Campaniço and Figueiredo advanced to second place in the GTS standings, separated by just two points from the leader of the standings, Alfredo Palencia.Audi drivers in the pointsFIA GT3: On the fourth race weekend of the FIA GT3 European Championship the Audi teams scored further points at Le Castellet. With ninth place in the Audi R8 LMS in the second race on Sunday Christer Jöns and Sean Paul Breslin (Black Falcon) achieved the best finish for the brand from Ingolstadt and scored two points. In Saturday’s race Michael Ammermüller and Paulo Bonifacio (Team Rosberg) had clinched tenth place and thus one point. News bitsA total of seven Audi R8 LMS cars will contest the Spa-Francorchamps 24 Hours on July 31/August 1. Wednesday will be the official test day for the race. Results and pointsNorisring (D), July 4, DTM, round 41 Jamie Green (Mercedes) 82 laps in 1h 08m 05.282s 2 Mattias Ekström (Audi A4 DTM) + 0.591s 3 Bruno Spengler (Mercedes) + 1.910s 4 Oliver Jarvis (Audi A4 DTM) + 9.946s 5 Timo Scheider (Audi A4 DTM) + 12.315s ...7 Alexandre Prémat (Audi A4 DTM) + 15.834s 8 Martin Tomczyk (Audi A4 DTM) + 16.100s 12 Mike Rockenfeller (Audi A4 DTM) + 34.790s 16 Katherine Legge (Audi A4 DTM) - 1 lapStandings after 4 of 10 rounds: 1 Spengler, 32 points; 2 Green, 22; 3 Ekström, 21; 4 Paffett, 19; 5 Di Resta, 17; 6 Scheider and Rockenfeller, 12 each; 8 Prémat, 8; 9 Jarvis, 5; 10 Tomczyk, 4; 11 Molina and Stoddart, 2 each.Next race: Nürburgring (D), August 8Nürburgring, July 3, VLN Endurance Championship, round 51 Lieb/Klasen (Porsche) 25 laps in 3h 38m01.369s 2 Stippler/Stuck (Audi R8 LMS) + 7.854s 3 Mamerow/Roloff (Porsche) + 52.878s 4 Arnold/Westbrook (Porsche) + 1m 00.673s 5 Stursberg/Kainz (Porsche) + 5m 14.947s Standings after 5 of 10 rounds: 1 Breuer, Deegener and Wohlfahrt, 47.78 points each; 4 Böhm, Leisen and Knechtges, 46.63 each.Next race: Nürburgring (D), July 17Le Castellet (F), July 3, FIA GT3 European Championship, round 71 Hohenadel/Keilwitz (Corvette) 25 laps in 1h 01m 12.220s 2 Lambotte/Parisy (Corvette) + 6.652s 3 Vannelet/Leclerc (Porsche) + 19.092s 4 Söderlund/Sandström (BMW) + 19.611s 5 Walter/Hürtgen (BMW) + 20.156s ...10 Bonifacio/Ammermüller (Audi R8 LMS) + 54.412s 11 Breslin/Jöns (Audi R8 LMS) + 58.604s 13 Bell/Brown (Audi R8 LMS) + 1m 18.111s 15 Hirschi/Guilbert (Audi R8 LMS) + 1m 44.132s 16 Demay/Lorgere-Roux (Audi R8 LMS) + 1m 51.950s 17 Guasch/Patterson (Audi R8 LMS) - 1 lap Le Castellet (F), July 4, FIA GT3 European Championship, round 81 Hohenadel/Keilwitz (Corvette) 25 laps in 1h 00m 16.352s 2 Lambotte/Parisy (Corvette) + 1.420s 3 van Splunteren/Holzer (Porsche) + 1.883s 4 Walter/Hürtgen (BMW) + 23.884s 5 Lagrange/Cunill (Lamborghini) + 24.037s ...9 Breslin/Jöns (Audi R8 LMS) + 54.928s 12 Hirschi/Guilbert (Audi R8 LMS) + 1m 07.141s 15 Bonifacio/Ammermüller (Audi R8 LMS) + 1m 09.492s 18 Guasch/Patterson (Audi R8 LMS) + 1m 29.500s 19 Herndlhofer/Heyer (Audi R8 LMS) + 1m 50.792s 20 Demay/Lorgere-Roux (Audi R8 LMS) + 1m 52.132s 21 Breslin/Griffin (Audi R8 LMS) - 1 lap Standings after 8 of 12 rounds: 1 Keilwitz and Hohenadel, 138 points; 3 Parisy and Lambotte, 87 each; 5 Hürtgen and Walter, 66 each.Next race: Algarve (P), September 18

Imola (I), July 3, Italian GT Championship, round 71 Albuquerque/Bonanomi (Audi R8 LMS) 27 laps in 50m 57.182s 2 Capello/Giraudi (Audi R8 LMS) + 2.584s 3 Bontempelli/Caccia (Ferrari) + 14.769s 4 Earl/Garofano (Ferrari) - 1 lap 5 Piodi/Paletto (Porsche) - 1 lap Imola (I), July 4, Italian GT Championship, round 81 Lavio/Gattuso (Ferrari) 27 laps in 51m 04.570s2 Lietz/Roda (Porsche) + 0.559s3 Bontempelli/Caccia (Ferrari) + 8.480s 4 Albuquerque/Bonanomi (Audi R8 LMS) + 14.449s5 Capello/Giraudi (Audi R8 LMS) + 25.720s Standings after 8 of 14 rounds: 1 Roda, 88 points; 2 Albuquerque and Bonanomi, 80 each; 4 Giraudi, 73; 5 Lavio and Gattuso, 67 each.Next race: Mugello (I), July 24Albacete (E), July 3, Spanish GT Championship, round 51 Campaniço/Figueiredo (Audi R8 LMS) 32 laps in 52m 43.378s2 Palencia/de Villota (Ferrari) - 1 lap3 Escámez/Monzón (Lamborghini) - 1 lapAlbacete (E), July 3, Spanish GT Championship, round 61 Campaniço/Figueiredo (Audi R8 LMS) 31 laps in 51m 21.945s2 Coimbra/Silva (Aston Martin) + 57.075s3 Palencia/de Villota (Ferrari) + 1m 01.312s4 Robert (Ferrari) - 1 lap5. Escámez/Monzón (Lamborghini) - 2 lapsStandings after 6 of 12 rounds: 1 Palencia, 36 points; 2 Campaniço and Figueiredo, 34 each; 4 Monzón and Escámez, 27 each; 6 Coimbra and Silva, 21 each.Next race: Estoril (P), September 4Coming up next weekJuly 9 - 10: Belcar Spa-Francorchamps (B)July 9 - 11: International GT Open Magny-Cours (F)July 10 - 11: Australian GT Championship Phillip Island (AUS)