From Audi Sport Press: Sixth WEC victory of the season for Audi and Drivers World Championship title at Shanghai Le Mans winners are early World Endurance Champions in China Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer celebrate race victory at Shanghai Fourteenth podium result for Audi in current WEC season On clinching a title and the sixth victory of the season at the seventh of eight rounds of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), Audi had two reasons to celebrate. After the success in the Manufacturers World Championship had been determined in Japan three weeks earlier, Loïc Duval/Tom Kristensen/Allan McNish (F/DK/GB) in the Audi R18 e-tron quattro won the drivers classification* in China. At Shanghai, the trio only had to take third place. Their team-mates Marcel Fässler/André Lotterer/Benoît Tréluyer (CH/D/F) won the race following a strong performance. Now all six Audi factory drivers, who are contesting the entire WEC, have won a World Championship: Loïc Duval/Tom Kristensen/Allan McNish follow Marcel Fässler/André Lotterer/Benoît Tréluyer, who were the first to decide the new FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) in their favor last year. Three victories at Silverstone, the Le Mans 24 Hours and Austin plus three second places at Spa, São Paulo and Fuji, and third place at Shanghai, provided the foundation for the Championship success. In the current season, Audi has celebrated 14 podium finishes, including six victories in the WEC. The drivers title was decided in the most important single market of AUDI AG in China on a circuit that actually does not suit the Audi R18 e-tron quattro well. Despite this factor and a puncture that required an additional pit stop Marcel Fässler/André Lotterer/Benoît Tréluyer secured the first sports car victory for Audi in China. Tréluyer, following a strong final sprint, crossed the finish line with an advantage of 15.374 seconds. Loïc Duval/Tom Kristensen/Allan McNish in the battle for the title avoided any unnecessary risk and concentrated on driving a flawless race throughout. Audi is now traveling to the WEC finale at Bahrain, where in three weeks from now the brand aims to take its seventh WEC victory of the season. Quotes after the race Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich (Head of Audi Motorsport): That was a brilliant victory because it was a really hard-fought one. The race was thrilling all the way to the end and decided only in the last half hour. The team performance was particularly nice because car number 2 helped out car number 1 with tire sets. Consequently, we delivered a great result for the Audi brand and showed how harmoniously our team functions. In the winning team, Benoît Tréluyer had a very important part. The track suits him particularly well. Loïc Duval (Audi R18 e-tron quattro #2): Ive only driven a full season for Audi alongside Tom and Allan this year. This was combined with a certain pressure as well as a nice hope. After all, Im driving in the best team of the world. Weve always given our best and have won the World Champions title for it today. Thats an overwhelming feeling in this outstanding year in which weve also won Le Mans together. More than this isnt possible. Tom Kristensen (Audi R18 e-tron quattro #2): In karting, I finished the World Championship as the runner-up once. Now Ive won the World Champions title with Audi. Thats a nice feeling. And we competed against last years World Champions and had to stand our ground. Loïc, Allan and Audi Sport Team Joest did a brilliant job. A nice feeling. Allan McNish (Audi R18 e-tron quattro #2): Ive been waiting for this moment since 1985. Even in karting, I battled for the World Champions title back then at Le Mans by the way. In Formula 1, I didnt have a real chance. Now, in my third motorsport discipline, its worked out. Im proud of what weve achieved together this year. Things were going really well. For me, the race at Austin was a very important element on the way to todays success. Now Ive got a feeling of special warmth in my body and of special wetness on my back, after Alex Wurz drenched me in champagne ... Race results 1 Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer (Audi R18 e-tron quattro) 190 laps in 6h 01m33.343s 2 Lapierre/Wurz (Toyota) + 15.374s 3 Duval/Kristensen/McNish (Audi R18 e-tron quattro) 1 lap 4 Beche/Belicchi/Prost (Lola-Toyota) 5 laps 5 Conway/Martin/Rusinov (Oreca-Nissan) 13 laps 6 Brundle/Heinemeier Hansson/Pla (Morgan-Nissan) 13 laps 7 Baguette/Gonzalez/Plowman (Morgan-Nissan) 13 laps 8 Graves/Kerr/Dolby (Oreca-Nissan) 14 laps 9 Lux/Shulzhitskiy/Wirdheim (Zytek-Nissan) 15 laps 10 Cheng/Ihara/Nicolet (Morgan-Nissan) 18 laps
