Audi sports car outing for Ogier
WRC leader makes guest appearance in Germany’s GT Masters race series
Ogier shows his pace in Audi R8
Sebastien Ogier had no trouble taking his blistering speed from the WRC stages onto the asphalt race track at the weekend as he scored a brace of impressive results in the latest round of the ADAC GT Masters series in Germany.
The reigning FIA World Rally Champion was a guest driver in the Prosperia C. Abt Racing team and partnered experienced sportscar racer Markus Winkelhock in a 550hp Audi R8 LMS Ultra for two races at the Lausitzring.
Although a technical problem restricted Ogier’s seat time to just five laps during free practice, he and Winkelhock guided their machine to 13th place at the end of race one – despite losing a considerable amount of time at the start when they were almost spun out of the race by a rival.
The duo faired even better in race two as they battled their way from their 19th place grid slot at the start to complete the race in an impressive eighth place.
Despite his very limited circuit racing experience – which most recently included a Porsche Supercup race at the Monaco Grand Prix weekend last year – Ogier was pleased with the progress he made at the Lausitzring.
“I enjoyed the weekend very much; it was a lot of fun,” the VW Motorsport driver said. “I kept on improving and my lap times were not at all bad. Our overall performance could have been a bit better, but we had a problem on Friday and didn't get much track time in, which made things quite tricky. I'm very pleased, though, and competing in the ADAC GT Masters was certainly a terrific experience."
