Allan McNish raced to victory in the latest round of the Le Mans Endurance Series at the Nürburgring in Germany on Saturday. McNish now ties for the lead in the four-race championship with Veloqx Audi team-mates Kaffer, Jamie Davies and Johnny Herbert.

McNish, who has scored two wins for Audi this year, commented:  “We all worked very hard for this result. After what happened at Le Mans it was important for us to have a good result. At one point I thought it was gone. But in endurance racing you never know until the finish what the result will be.  So I am very happy. But today, Pierre Kaffer was the hero. Considering it was only his fourth sports-prototype race and his first one here, he was absolutely awesome in very tricky conditions.”

After an action-packed opening three-hours, which included rain showers of varying intensity, Herbert led Kaffer by just 29.1secs.  Kaffer had closed in to within 7.661secs of leader Herbert when Johnny pitted to hand over to Davies while Pierre himself stopped the next lap and handed over to McNish. 

Allan immediately set the race’s fastest lap and swept in to the lead with just over two hours remaining. McNish ultimately took the chequered flag in darkness at 10pm (CET), over a lap ahead of Davies in the six hour race.  The adverse weather conditions meant that the race ran for the maximum six hour duration rather than the intended 195-laps. The penultimate race in the new LMES, which takes place at Silverstone on 14th August, will mark the British Audi team’s “home” début.  – 5 July