Audi RS 5 launch and the Asian debut of the R8 LMS at Sepang

With the driving over, it was now time to focus our attention on the R8 LMS for Saturday night's Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race (MMER).

With the R8 LMS, Audi offers a racecar for customer teams to participate in FIA GT3 races as well as endurance races. Audi is using this year's MMER to showcase the R8 LMS to Asian customer race teams. The racecar is based on the R8 GT road car - it even features the latter's V10 engine and flappy paddle gearbox.

For the MMER, the sole R8 LMS is entered by Audi Racing Experience Team Joest. Those familiar with Le Mans will know that this is the same team that runs Audi's Le Mans programme in recent years with cars like the R8 LMP, R10 TDI and more recently, the R15 TDI. Joest has roped in multiple Le Mans winners Frank Biela and Marco Werner for the MMER effort. The pair will share driving duties with former Porsche Carrera Cup Asia champion, Hong Kong driver Darryl O'Young.

The trio qualified the R8 LMS in fourth place as Biela and Werner were still trying to learn the track while O'Young was getting used to his new machine. There was drama just before the race start at midnight on Saturday though. Biela was just about to pull out of the pits after a tyre change when one of the Joest team members shouted, "Fire, fire!". And then we saw flames from the engine bay. The Joest boys quickly put out the flames and got down to work on rectifying the suspected fuel leak. They completed the job in just a few minutes and Biela was sent back out to the track to start the race from the grid. Seeing these guys work their magic on the car in such situations is just plain brilliant - professionalism just don't come better than this.

Thanks to the quick and effective repairs by the Joest boys, the R8 LMS hardly skipped a beat during the 12-hour race. Other than an unscheduled change of brakes in the morning, the R8 LMS stayed reliable to finish second in the race, a highly commendable result considering that it is the first time it raced in the heat and humidity of Asia, trailing behind the similarly engined Lamborghini Gallardo LP560 of Tunku Hamamm, Peter Kox and Christopher Hasse after 12 hours of hard racing on Sepang.

Marco Werner, three-time Le Mans winner said: "This is the first race in Asia for the team and for the Audi R8 LMS so we are pleased with our performance. The weather conditions, with the high level of humidity in Malaysia, were new racing conditions for the car and us, but we managed to overcome this by maintaining our consistency and precision throughout the race." Darryl O'Young, the Canadian-Chinese and former Porsche Carrera Cup Asia champion, raced for the first time for Audi since he joined the team earlier this year. Darryl said: "Sepang is one of the most technically challenging circuits in the world. The Audi R8 LMS is a versatile race car so for it to finish on the podium in its first appearance under these conditions is a great start." Frank Biela, the legendary five-time Le Mans winner, said: "The atmosphere at MMER was great - so many amazing cars and talented drivers participated. This is the Audi R8 LMS' first appearance in Asia but I'm certain it won't be the last. We definitely love to come back to the region for more opportunities to bring home trophies for Audi."

Looks like we will see more of the stunning R8 LMS racing in the region the, hopefully at our own Changi Motorsports Hub in a couple of years!

Credits: Story by Raymond Lai Photos by Audi Singapore and Raymond Lai