By Tarek Ramchani
The second race at Spa-Francorchamps in ADAC GT Masters was very hard for the Audi squad in very difficult weather conditions.
The race started very badly for Audi. In the first lap René Rast, driving the #27 Prosperia C.Abt Racing Audi R8 LMS ultra, had a very nasty crash. The three-time Prosche Supercup champion was collected from behind by another competitor after a spin. The safety car was deployed and there were big fears for René Rast. Fortunately René was conscious and was sent to the medical center.
The race resumed after several laps under full course yellow. The wet track conditions remained, and as was the case yesterday, only one Audi R8 LMS ultra finished in the top 10. The #28 car from Prosperia C.Abt Racing driven by Christian Mamerow and Christer Jöns crossed the finish line in seventh place.
The #16 Audi from YACO Racing shared by Philip Geipel and Dino Lunardi was eleventh. The third car from Prosperia C.Abt racing finished in seventeenth with the #26 R8 LMS ultra of Rahel Frey and Markus Winkelhock. Whilst the 2012 series champions from MS Racing had another quite difficult race. The #100 Audi of Daniel Dobitsch and Aditya Patel was eighteenth and their teammates, Sebastian Asch and Florian Stoll with the sister #1 machine, were only twentieth.
Overall the Belgian round was a very difficult weekend for all three Audi teams. We wish the best of luck for René Rast, that he will get well soon and be ready for the Nürburgring 24 Hours next weekend.
Editor's note: As it is now, no one can deny that the Audi R8 LMS ultra is penalized in the ADAC GT Masters. The R16, within this specific Balance of Performance, is not able to fight at the front, and it can be assumed that this will be the same case for the proceeding rounds if things remain as they are now. It is really hard to understand how some of the best drivers are in the Audis, and that they are always far behind. Even with fast and experienced youngsters such as René Rast and Christopher Mies or Markus Winkelhock and Rahel Frey, who both have massive experience in the demanding DTM, the cars are still relegated to not being able to battle at the front. MS Racing are another good example, they are the reigning ADAC GT Masters champions with a rival brand in 2012, but since their switch to Audi in 2013 they have also clearly suffered with the performance disadvantage, despite the Audi R8 LMS ultra being one of the best cars in international GT3 competition. This specific performance deficiency with the the BOP was also the case last year, and unfortunately things have not changed for 2013 in the ADAC GT Masters.
(Editor’s note is stated by the Audi Motorsport Blog (an independent blog), this is NOT a statement made by the official Audi Sport / Audi Sport customer racing)
Photo credit: ADAC GT Masters
