Porsche Grabs Success From Audi

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Porsche Grabs Success From Audi

Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas took another overall victory for the German Porsche at the American Le Mans Series Mobil 1 Grand Prix of Mosport with a late pass on the struggling Audi of Allan McNish.

The Scot appeared to have the race wrapped-up heading into the final stages. However, McNish was unable to hold on when his R10 became stuck in fourth gear.

"I was so busy trying to pass slower traffic and maintain my position ahead of the Acuras and my teammates for the LMP2 victory that I did not realize the Audi was having mechanical problems," Bernhard narrated. "I thought he had made a pit stop, and was having trouble getting back up to speed. It was only after I passed him and could not see him again in my mirrors that I heard on the radio that his car had trouble."

Since April, Audi have still not won a race overall in the ALMS. The team’s only other victory came in June at the Le Mans 24 Hours. Audi brakes should put a halt to the negative race results in order to bring back the success that was previously theirs.

"We were in a very good position and had the Porsche covered on lap speed," said McNish. "But with seven or eight minutes to go I had a big problem coming out of the hairpin and was stuck in gear. We don't know what happened. The car was great before the end. We had the race under control."

At the end of an arduous two hours and 45 minutes of racing, however, it was the No. 7 LMP2 Penske Racing Porsche Spyder driven by Bernhard and Dumas that emerged a little bruised, but not beaten, for the win, said the Toronto Sun.

With the win, Bernard and teammate Dumas gave Penske Motorsports its second straight team prototype-2 title. "We have shown in the past year that this team is one of the best. But we already knew that," Dumas said. "Everyone knows the success of Penske Motorsports and Roger Penske. Last year we had a nice car but the competition was not so high. This year we have a new car and thank goodness for that."

The ALMS featured four types of cars driving at the same time. The speedy prototype-1 and prototype-2 cars shared the track with the heavier and slower Grand Touring-1 and Grand Touring-2 cars. "We were fighting for the class win," Bernhard said. "The Penske Porsche was perfect and to win on this historic track is icing on the cake."

For McNish, the team’s loss was devastating. "We had the dominant car all day," said McNish. "We were finally able to show just how great the engineering of the Audi R10 was when the gear box stuck in fourth."

Johnny O'Connell and Jan Magnussen took their second GT1 victory this season, after the Corvette of Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta lost time due to a crash with a prototype car.

Additionally, Mika Salo and Jaime Melo had a relatively quiet run to a GT2 victory for Risi Competizione, after the pair gained a lap on their class rivals early in the race, Auto Sport reported. Salo was the only GT2 driver who had not been lapped by the leading Audi of Dindo Capello when the first full-course caution of the race came out, and after that the pair just had to stay out of trouble to take the victory, the report continued.

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About the Author: Anthony Fontanelle is a 35-year-old automotive buff who grew up in the Windy City. He does freelance work for an automotive magazine when he is not busy customizing cars in his shop.