Communications Motorsport

Jürgen Pippig Eva-Maria Veith Telephone: +49 (0)841 89 34200 Telephone: +49 (0)841 89 33922 E-mail: motorsport-media@.de E-mail: [email protected]

June 13, 2009

Comments about the retirement of Audi R15 TDI #2

Ingolstadt/Le Mans – At 9:30 p.m. the race at Le Mans for the Audi R15 TDI with start number two ended. left the track entering the Curves and slammed heavily backwards into the wall. Although the German still tried to bring the car back to the pits, the stewards, however, prohibited Luhr, who shared the cockpit of the diesel sportscar with and , to return to the track for safety reasons because the car was losing oil. A technical defect can be excluded.

Lucas Luhr: “I still can’t exactly explain the reason for the accident. I braked normally for the Porsche Curves when the rear suddenly stepped out of line. I tried to correct and collect the car, but the sector is simply too fast for this. The car spun around before slamming into the tire barrier very hard. Even though the Audi was still running the corner workers didn’t allow me to return to the track. We now have to analyze just exactly what happened there. I’m bitterly sorry for everybody who has worked so hard for this race, and of course especially my team mates.”

Mike Rockenfeller: “First and foremost it is important that Lucas (Luhr) is okay. I couldn’t believe it at first when I saw the pictures of the accident on the screen. After losing a car myself in difficult conditions during my first Le Mans race for Audi I had hoped that such a thing would never happen to us again. I was just getting ready for my next stint. We are all extremely disappointed since not reaching the finish at Le Mans is the worst possible scenario for a racing driver.”

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Marco Werner: “Le Mans is the world’s toughest race – as many people have unfortunately found out today. Le Mans has given me a great deal, but sometimes it makes you pay a high price. Just like today. The guys from Audi and the team have worked incredibly hard throughout the whole week, they never got to bed early once and have invested so much passion in this project. It hurts now to just see how many mechanics are standing here with tears in their eyes. For Lucas (Luhr) and I Le Mans was the race of the year since we no longer race in the . We’ve had some fantastic years here and had as good as assumed that all the cars would reach the finish in one piece. Today showed us painfully that you just simply shouldn’t think like this.”

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Photographs and information available at www.audi-motorsport.info

AUDI AG sold a total of 1,003,469 cars in 2008 and thus achieved its 13th consecutive record year. The Company posted new record figures with revenue of €34.2 billion and profit before tax of €3.2 billion. Audi produces vehicles in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm (Germany), Györ (Hungary), Changchun (China) and Brussels (Belgium). Aurangabad in India saw the start of CKD production of the at the end of 2007 and of the in early October 2008. The Company is active in more than 100 markets worldwide. AUDI AG’s wholly owned subsidiaries include Automobili Holding S.p.A. in Sant’Agata Bolognese (Italy) and quattro GmbH in Neckarsulm. Audi currently employs around 58,000 people worldwide, including 46,500 in Germany. The brand with the four rings invests around €2 billion each year in order to sustain the company’s technological lead embodied in its “Vorsprung durch Technik” slogan. Audi plans to significantly increase the number of models in its portfolio by 2015 to 40. The AUDI brand celebrates its 100th birthday in 2009. The company was founded by August in Zwickau on July 16, 1909; he named it AUDI after the Latin translation of his surname (“hark!”).

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