Brake Disc Caused Leading Attempto Audi’s Retirement

A brake disc failure caused Attempto Racing’s Tresor Orange 1 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II to retire from a nearly 30-second lead at the halfway stage of the Paul Ricard 1000km.

The German squad opened a big advantage in the first three hours but its charge ended when Ricardo Feller encountered a deflated left-rear tire on the No. 40 car.

It later emerged that the deflation was the result of an issue with the right-rear brake disc, which explained why Attempto pushed the car into its garage rather than fitting a new tire.

ROWE Racing assumed the lead of the race at that point before Raffaele Marciello returned pole-sitter Akkodis ASP to the front to win the six-hour race for Mercedes-AMG.

“The car was leading easily and doing a mega job,” Attempto team principal Arkin Aka told Sportscar365.

“The pit stops were mega. And then we had a problem with the rear brake disc. This was the reason for the puncture. The brake disc destroyed the rim and then we lost air, and it was broken.

“It was a 30-second gap to the second car. It’s not normal that the rear disc brakes – the front one, we have seen – but the rear one, normally not.

“It’s bad luck, I have to say. Maybe we have more luck for [the 24 Hours of] Spa.”

A frustrated Feller was seen slamming the driver’s side door of the Audi after returning the damaged car to the pits.

Dennis Marschall started the race for the Tresor-backed Attempto outfit, climbing from fourth on the grid to second with an opening-lap overtake on AF Corse’s Robert Shwartzman followed by a move on GetSpeed driver Maro Engel on the Mistral Straight.

An undercut strategy then ensured the Audi emerged from the first round of pit stops as the leader, with Mattia Drudi and Feller taking turns to increase the gap over the other Pro competitors before the issue with the Brembo-supplied brake disc emerged.

“Everybody did a good job and we showed our performance,” Aka said.

“Feller did a mega job and Mattia did a mega job. Marschall was flying. Everything was going OK at this point.

“Then, when it was close to the driver change, we had this problem with the disc. It had never happened before.”

Tresor boss Ferdinando Geri, whose organization is a partner of the Attempto program this year in GTWC Europe, added that despite the disappointment of retiring, the Audi’s early pace was an encouraging sign ahead of the next Endurance Cup race at Spa.

“It’s nothing you can do when it’s a failure of the brakes like this,” he told Sportscar365.

“We were really very strong. We [were] 30 seconds [ahead of] the second car in three hours. What more to say? It’s a really big shame. It’s really the fault of nobody.

“But we showed that the team and the drivers are really strong and it was working very well.

“The pace was really good and we are looking forward to doing a nice race with a factory Audi Sport car at Spa, with the same team and drivers. Audi Sport will help us.

“I think we are really looking forward to doing our best there.”