Hat trick for Audi in endurance!
After the 24 Hours of Le Mans with its new prototypes hybrid engine (diesel / electricity), after the 24 Hours of Nurburgring with its R8 LMS Ultra, the Audi brand has won the last weekend the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, realizing and history, and totally unique to date, hat trick, putting his hand on the three major endurance races in the same year.
On the calendar of the International Blancpain Endurance Series, 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps are reserved for cars GT3 category. A superb starting grid of over sixty crews composed this 2012 edition, played in part in the rain. If testing, the Porsche 911 GT3, Lamborghini Gallardo, McLaren MP4/12C GT3, Mercedes SLS AMG and Ferrari 458 Italia had shown their competitiveness in the race, the battle quickly turned into a duel between Audi R8 and BMW Z4 GT3 Ultra.
This is the crew consists of Germans Frank Stippler and Rene Rast and the Italian Andrea Piccini who won the race with his Audi entered by Team Phoenix. Another Audi finished second a lap before two BMW, the first one being led away by Matthias Lauda (son of former F1 champion Niki Lauda). The first Ferrari completes the "Top 5" before the last two winners of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Marcel Fassler and Andre Lotterer, joined by specialist Endurance Tom Kristensen on another Audi Team Phoenix. Clearly the fastest on the track, this crew has dropped the sixty-sixth up to the end of the first hour of the race, following a hooking necessitating many repairs. The three riders then lined impressive lap times, taking not less than three laps to the leaders to complete the race in sixth place. Deception however Porsche (the first 911 GT3 classee only seventh) McLaren with one MP412C on arrival (ninth) on the nine departing, and more in Mercedes SLS AMG sees its first end only twentieth.
In Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix was the last appointment before the traditional summer break of five weeks. Qualifications as race, Lewis Hamilton has the best shows, the McLaren-Mercedes driver winning against the Lotus-Renault Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean. Sebastian Vettel brings his Red Bull-Renault in fourth place, ahead of Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), which keeps the head in the championship of the world.
Jenson Button (McLaren-Mercedes), Bruno Senna (Williams-Renault), Mark Webber (Red Bull-Renault), Felipe Massa (Ferrari) and Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) round off the round of drivers scoring points at the end of the race rather monotone on the twisty Hungaroring, near the capital Budapest.
In NASCAR, the Sprint Cup and Nationwide series evolved on the prestigious Indianapolis Super Oval. Sprint Cup, Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) has completely dominates a race that remains famous for hundreds of thousands of American fans because, finishing fourth, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has delighted Matt Kenseth (retire after an accident) the chair of leader championship for the first time in his career!
For the Nationwide Series, he was a first presence at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Fought without too many incidents, the race was won by Brad Keselowski (Dodge) who offered the Team Penske its hundredth victory in NASCAR.
