Tom Kristensen reveals strategy ahead of ‘6 Hours of Bahrain’
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Ahead of the sixth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) at Bahrain International Circuit, Audi factory driver Tom Kristensen talks about Audi’s team strategy. At São Paulo, the Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Marcel Fässler/André Lotterer/Benoît Tréluyer finished as the runners-up behind Toyota and in front of team-mates Lucas di Grassi/Tom Kristensen/Allan McNish in the Audi R18 ultra. Audi will now field two Audi R18 e-tron quattro cars for the Bahrain race on September 29th.
In Bahrain, the teams can expect to find unusual overall conditions. The race is held in the middle of the desert on the Sakhir circuit south of the capital Manama. Extreme temperatures, high humidity and sand particles mean tough conditions for the drivers and the cars. For the Audi factory drivers and Audi Sport Team Joest, the track in the island state is new territory. The sixth race of the season is scheduled from 4 pm to 10 pm local time.
Kristensen, who has become a motorsport legend with eight Le Mans victories to his name, six of which were consecutive, comments on his expectations for the WEC race in the desert: “Everything will be new; the race in Bahrain differs fundamentally from every other race. The track is in the desert, so sand and possibly also the wind will have a particularly special impact. We are expecting it to be very hot. It’ll be pretty hard for man and machine. And on top of this, the majority of the race will be staged in the dark. This makes the competition in an already interesting WEC debut season even more appealing.”
For the three remaining rounds of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) Kristensen will race with the R18 e-tron quattro instead of the R18 ultra. He explains the strengths of the hybrid car: “We put in a good performance with the R18 e-tron quattro at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where the car proved that it can win this important endurance race first time out. Since then development at Audi Sport has not stood still. I’m really looking forward to returning in Audi’s hybrid sportscar from the sixth round onwards. The car’s greatest advantage is in traffic and under acceleration.”
Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish and are only 7.5 points behind the championship leaders Marcel Fässler/André Lotterer/Benoît Tréluyerwith 78 points still to be awarded this season.On the chances of leading the standings again, he tells us “I think Allan and I have maintained our chances of being able to fight for the drivers’ title for the rest of the 2012 season. We had good races at Silverstone and in Brazil, even if things didn’t go completely according to plan there. With the R18 e-tron quattro, which we haven’t driven since Le Mans in June, we can now accelerate just as well as our competitors. This helps in the title fight, which is still wide open. I promise every fan of our sport that they can look forward to a great and fair battle royal all the way to the finale.”
Despite several previous visits to the Middle East, it will be Kristensen’s first race for Audi in the region. The Dane has been Audi factory driver since 2000 and has raced Audi R8, Audi R10 TDI, Audi R15 TDI and now Audi R18 sportscars as well as six versions of the Audi A4 DTM.
