Le Mans Series – Monza

Allan McNish makes the short journey from his Monaco home to Monza in Italy which hosts the second round of the Le Mans Series on Sunday (27 Apr).

The Scotsman aims to steer his diesel-powered Audi to his first victory of the season and bounce back from recent disappointments.

McNish led at Sebring (Florida) and Barcelona (Spain), the opening rounds of the American and European-based Le Mans Series respectively, only for minor technical issues to delay him to eventual third and fifth place finishes.

But Dumfries-born McNish is confident his pioneering Audi R10 TDI will come good allowing him and Italian co-driver Dindo Capello to return to winning ways.

“I’ve experienced small problems in my first two races this season but everyone at Audi Sport has been working hard in between the races and I’m certain we’ll get our famed reliability back,” confirmed McNish.

“The competition is so intense in endurance sportscar racing nowadays that any time delays rule you out of contention.”

McNish is predicting another epic encounter in the 1,000km race staged at the historic Italian venue in Milan’s Royal Park – a 3.6-mile circuit the Scotsman knows well.

Allan added: “The Peugeot is very quick as is the Aston Martin-engined Lola while the Courage and Pescarolo will be in the mix. It’ll be nip and tuck every lap from start to finish. With around 50 cars on the track that means a lot of overtaking.

“Monza is fantastic – the place, the history, I love everything about it. The Audi R10 TDI’s top speed will be over 200mph in places and down to 40mph in the chicanes.

“Monza’s been quite good to me in the past in Formula 3000, Formula One and sportscars. My first race at Monza was in F3000 in 1990. I ran in fifth place in the 2002 Italian Grand Prix with a podium beckoning until the front suspension broke.

“On my last visit in 2004 I had an epic battle with Johnny Herbert when we were both driving for Audi UK. We duelled out the last couple of laps in very wet conditions and took the chequered flag under a second apart.”

“My home track has four very fast straights,” says Capello. “The speeds are comparable to those
at Le Mans. Braking for the first and second chicanes is decisive. The set-up has to be a good compromise between top-speed and downforce.”

A second Audi Sport Team Joest R10 TDI is driven by Alexandre Prémat (France) and Mike Rockenfeller (Germany) the pairing that finished second in Barcelona.