Tough luck for Narian Karthikeyan and Kolles Audi at the Algarve circuit.
The 3rd round of the Le Mans Series at the Autodromo Algarve did not go as the Kolles Audi Team had planned. The team's Audi
R10TDI was only able to complete 149 laps, 66 laps less than winners, Pescarolo-Judd's Jean-Christophe Boullion and Christophe Tinseu.
Piloting the No. 14 Kolles Audi during the first stint was Andrew Meyrick. Ten laps into the race, Meyrick was running in 6th place, behind their sister car driven by Christian Bakkerud. He spun out of control, damaging both Kolles Audi R10 TDIs. The No. 14 car, which Naran was to drive in the second stint suffered damage to the rear suspension and body-work, while the No. 15 car had radiator damage and bodywork damage. In addition, Meyrick 'cooked' the clutch on his way back to the pits. It took 90 minutes to repair the damage, which meant that the Kolles Audi Team lost out.
Despite the huge deficit in time that was impossible to make up, Narain Karthikeyan's stint went off well. His shoulder injury did not give him any trouble, and he was able to complete his two-hour stint behind the wheel with no pain or fatigue. However Narain's disappointment was evident. He said, "“I’m really upset that we were not able to get the result we deserved. The car was really quick in race-trim. The team had done a fantastic job preparing both cars for the race. I’m sure we had the pace to challenge for a podium finish, if not for the outright win. In a 6-hour endurance race, it is quite unnecessary to be so aggressive right at the start of the race, especially with your own team-mate. It’s such a shame that a huge opportunity for success was thrown away by one single hasty action. It just goes to show that experience and intelligence in a race car can make a huge difference. I’m just so disappointed.”