ALMS: Early title win for Porsche duo
With a fifth place at the penultimate round of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) at Road Atlanta Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard secured the drivers� title in the LM P2 Class. Before the season finale at Laguna Seca (18 October) the duo, whose Porsche RS Spyder is fitted with dampers and a clutch from ZF Sachs Race Engineering, has a point advantage that is out of reach of their rivals. Better yet, in fourth place overall, their Porsche and ZF Sachs brand colleagues Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe finished the race. Overall victory at the 撤etit Le Mans� race was clinched by Dindo Capello, Emanuele Pirro and Allan McNish, whose Audi R10 TDI is equipped with clutch high-tech from Schweinfurt as well. The current LM P1 Champions Lucas Luhr and Marco Werner (Audi R10 TDI) finished in third place.
Results, Petit Le Mans (USA), 10th round, ALMS, 01 Oct � 04 Oct 2008:
1. R. Capello/E. Pirro/A. McNish, Audi, 394 laps, ZF Sachs
2. N. Minassian/M. Gen�/C. Klien, Peugeot, + 4.512s
3. L. Luhr/M. Werner, Audi, + 7.565s, ZF Sachs
4. H. Castroneves/R. Briscoe, Porsche, + 42.672s, ZF Sachs
5. T. Bernhard/R. Dumas, Porsche, + 1m 04.350s, ZF Sachs
6. S. Maassen/P. Long/E. Collard, Porsche, - 2 laps, ZF Sachs
7. B. Leitzinger/M. Franchitti/A. Lally, Porsche, - 3 laps, ZF Sachs
8. G. de Ferran/S. Pagenaud/S. Dixon, Acura, - 6 laps
DTM: Mattias Ekstr� wins, title to be decided at Hockenheim
At the penultimate DTM race of the 2008 season at Le Mans Mattias Ekstr� celebrated his third victory of the season. The Swede, whose Audi A4 DTM is fitted with a clutch from ZF Sachs Race Engineering, had a 4.250-second advantage over Mercedes driver Paul di Resta when he crossed the finish line after 41 laps. All 2008-spec AMG Mercedes C-Class cars use clutch high-tech from Schweinfurt as well. At the beginning of the race it looked as if Timo Scheider (Audi) would be able to celebrate an early title win because � like his brand colleagues � he had started on slicks better suiting the weather conditions and took the lead early. Di Resta and his brand colleagues corrected their wrong tyre choice and changed to slicks as well. Afterwards, di Resta drove the fastest race laps. When heavier rain set in, DTM leader Scheider had to pit for an unscheduled tyre change as well and only finished in sixth place. Before the finale at Hockenheim (24 - 26 October) Scheider now only has a two-point advantage over di Resta, none of the other drivers have any chances left of winning the championship.
Results, Le Mans (F), 10th round, DTM, 03 Oct � 05 Oct 2008:
1. M. Ekstr�, Audi, 1h 10m11.103s, ZF Sachs
2. P. di Resta, Mercedes, + 4.250s, ZF Sachs
3. A. Pr駑at, Audi, + 10.946s, ZF Sachs
4. G. Paffett, Mercedes, + 11.393s
5. B. Schneider, Mercedes, + 17.200s, ZF Sachs
6. T. Scheider, Audi, + 18.806s, ZF Sachs
7. B. Spengler, Mercedes, + 19.318s, ZF Sachs
8. T. Kristensen, Audi, + 20.074s, ZF Sachs
Drivers� standings:
1. T. Scheider, 65 points; 2. P. di Resta, 63; 3. M. Ekstr�, 54; 4. J. Green, 46; 5. B. Spengler, 33; 6. B. Schneider, M. Tomczyk, each 31; 8. T. Kristensen, 23; 9. G. Paffett, 13; 10. A. Pr駑at, 10.
World Rally Championship: podium place for ZF Sachs partner Ford
With his ninth podium place in the 2008 season Mikko Hirvonen kept the fight for the title in the World Rally Championship open. The Finn, whose Ford Focus RS WRC is equipped with a clutch from ZF Sachs Race Engineering, on the final day mainly delivered a fantastic showing by setting the best time on each of the three last special stages of the day and thus passed his brand colleague Fran輟is Duval to clinch third place. The Belgian, who also piloted a Focus with high-tech from Schweinfurt, had been promoted to the Ford factory team from the private Stobart team on account of his abilities on asphalt and confirmed this confidence by a fourth-place finish. Thanks to Jari-Matti Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen two further Focus cars managed the leap into the top eight and completed a great team result for ZF Sachs partner Ford.
Results, Spain Rally (E), 12th round of the WRC, 02 Oct � 05 Oct 2008:
1. S. Loeb/D. Elena, Citro�, 3h 21m17.4 s
2. D. Sordo/M. Marti, Citro�, + 24.9s
3. M. Hirvonen/J. Lehtinen, Ford, + 1m 02.5s, ZF Sachs
4. F. Duval/P. Pivato, Ford, + 1m 10.8s, ZF Sachs
5. P. Solberg/P. Mills, Subaru, + 3m 27.4s
6. J. Latvala/M. Anttila, Ford, + 4m 03.8s, ZF Sachs
7. C. Atkinson/S. Prevot, Subaru, + 4m 04.9s
8. A. Mikkelsen/O. Floene, Ford, + 5m 19.6s, ZF Sachs
Drivers� standings:
1. S. Loeb, 96 points; 2. M. Hirvonen, 84; 3. D. Sordo, 59; 4. C. Atkinson, 42; 5. J. Latvala, 37; 6. P. Solberg, 36; 7. H. Solberg, 22; 8. G. Galli, 17; 9. F. Duval, 16; 10. M. Wilson, 12.
Manufacturers� standings:
1. Citro�, 159 points; 2. Ford, 132; 3. Subaru, 80; 4. Stobart-Ford, 55; 5. Munchi`s-Ford, 22; 6. Suzuki, 20.
Other results
Results, Monza (I), 10th round of the World Touring Car Championship, 03 Oct -05 Oct 2008:
Race 1
1. Y. Muller, SEAT, 18m 16.446s, ZF Sachs
2. G. Tarquini, SEAT, + 0.277s, ZF Sachs
3. A. Priaulx, BMW, + 1.710s
4. T. Monteiro, SEAT, + 3.699s, ZF Sachs
5. N. Larini, Chevrolet, + 8.111s
6. R. Huff, Chevrolet, + 8.206s
7. J. Gen�, SEAT, + 8.434s, ZF Sachs
8. A. Zanardi, BMW, + 11.056s
Race 2
1. G. Tarquini, SEAT, 18m 18.397s, ZF Sachs
2. J. Gen�, SEAT, + 0.316s, ZF Sachs
3. N. Larini, Chevrolet, + 0.646s
4. Y. Muller, SEAT, + 2.780s, ZF Sachs
5. A. Menu, Chevrolet, + 3.056s
6. T. Monteiro, SEAT, + 8.231s, ZF Sachs
7. A. Zanardi, BMW, + 9.522s
8. A. Farfus, BMW, + 11.901s
Drivers� world championship standings:
1. Y. Muller, 95 points; 2. G. Tarquini, 86; 3. R. Huff, 64; 4. R. Rydell, 62; 5. A. Priaulx, 61; 6. J. Gen�, 53; 7. J. M�ler, 52; 8. F. Porteiro, 50; 9. N. Larini, 48; 10. A. Farfus, 47.