Benoît Tréluyer and his Audi Sport team-mates Marcel Fässler and André Lotterer might have lost the Drivers’ points lead in the FIA World Endurance Championship following the 6 Hours of Fuji (October 9-11), but they still have their eyes firmly on the prize! Having secured their sixth podium in as many rounds, the three-time Le Mans winners expect the next two races in Shanghai and Bahrain to better suit them and their #7 Audi R18 e-tron quattro.
Benoît was as jubilant as ever upon returning to Japan last weekend after stopping off at Gotemba city to catch up with his beloved fans. “Their loyalty touches me more and more as the years go by,” said the Frenchman when he saw the warm welcome his supporters had prepared. “They’re incredibly passionate and respectful! I really feed on their energy.”
Tréluyer had been looking for a boost to overhaul Porsche at the Fuji International Speedway, which, given the R18 e-tron quattro’s characteristics and technology, never really played to Audi’s strengths.
Nevertheless, the Ingolstadt-designed machine clocked similar lap times to its competitors as early as free practice – an auspicious sign of things to come across the rest of the weekend. The #7 crew performed strongly in qualifying, finishing only three tenths adrift of the second-placed Porsche. Fässler subsequently made the most of their third place grid slot in Sunday’s race by making a blinding start and taking the lead in the process. With Porsche and Audi operating in different performance windows, the R18 e-tron quattro would sometimes prove to be the quicker car on certain parts of the track whilst slightly trailing its rival at others. However, to stay ahead the 2012 world champions had to take chances.
“We were the first to go onto the intermediate tyre,” explained Tréluyer afterwards. “When track conditions improved we were ultimately the first to change to slicks as well. But it was too early to make the switch, which we realised fairly quickly. André [Lotterer] still managed to eke out some strong lap times so we stayed out a bit more, thinking the track would dry faster than it actually did. That was a mistake, so we duly returned to the pits to swap back onto inters.”
When the Normandy-born racer took the wheel he had the all-important slick rubber at his disposal, which immediately improved the #7 machine’s pace.
“The performance was there but we did take too large a risk with the tyre strategy,” added Benoît. “That said, the Porsches remained just a little bit faster, so it was the only way for us to win the race. We didn’t have anything to lose; we would’ve ended up third anyway, so we had to take the gamble. What really matters is that we’re inching ever closer and growing more confident for what lies ahead. In theory, Fuji was our weakest track, but we still did pretty well! For sure, that kind of performance is encouraging for the remainder of our campaign.”
Despite having lost the championship lead, Benoît, Marcel and André are looking forward to the final two rounds, where they aim to take race day by the scruff of the neck.
“Granted, the title lead is no longer ours, but we’re still only one point behind in second and very much in contention! The next stop is Shanghai, where we had a particularly strong race two years ago. What’s more, we’ve already won in Bahrain, which hosts the season finale. Porsche has tended to struggle in the heat this year, so it’s still all to play for! The final two rounds are sure to be highly competitive and everybody in the team is up for it.
“The squad is pushing like crazy to close the small gap to Porsche. There’s very little between us at the moment. When I look back at the progress we’ve made since last year, when Toyota was dominating, I’m confident we can still improve and claim the title. We’ll give it our best shot until the very last corner of the final lap. We won the first two races of the season and we intend to do the same for the last two rounds as well!”
In case you ever doubted them, the Audi boys will not surrender in their pursuit. Everything remains up for grabs in the World Endurance Championship!