When the starting flag is lowered for the 40th running of the Nürburgring 24H next weekend, seven Audi R8 LMS ultra's run by five teams will start their campaign to win Germany’s toughest endurance race.
If you haven't yet watched the opening round of DTM 2012 from Hockenheimring last weekend, then you're missing out on a cracking race, with Mercedes finishing first and second ahead of Mattais Ekström's Audi in 3rd, and the best placed BMW of Andy Priaulx in sixth.
Despite securing pole position in yesterday's qualifying, Audi driver Mattais Ekström lost the lead to arch-rivals Mercedes and never recovered it, finishing in 3rd place, with Andy Priaulx chasing down Audi driver Mike Rockenfeller to finish in 6th, as the best-placed BMW driver.
The 2012 DTM championship is underway, and after plenty of pre-season speculation we can now judge the performance of each of the three premium manufacturers - Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.
If you're a UK-based fan of Germany's DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen-Meisterschaft) series, then you may be wondering how to catch up with the action on TV or online.
This weekend 72,000 fans gathered at a special DTM presentation in Wiesbaden to meet the teams and drivers, watch racing taxis perform spectacular drifts, lightning-quick pit stops, and see the new DTM contenders from Mercedes, Audi and newcomer BMW up close.
Audi has released a statement confirming its purchase of thoroughbred Italian motorcycle maker Ducati, in a deal that is thought to be worth €860 million ($1.12 billion). The transaction will be now completed as quickly as possible once authorised by the competition authorities.
One of the stars of this month's Auto China show in Beijing, is bound to be Audi's crowd-pleasing RS Q3 Concept, a purely one-off show car (for now) which combines the Q3's SUV body with the turbocharged five-cylinder TFSI engine from the TT RS.
With 355bhp the RS Q3 will sprint from zero to 62mph in...
The grid will certainly be 'colourful' when the DTM season kicks off at the Hockenheimring on April 29th. We've now seen both Audi and BMW team liveries, and thankfully they've steered well away from the anodyne silver sported by their AMG Mercedes rivals.
We saw a prototype of Audi's A5 DTM challenger at the season finale in Hockenheim last year, but this is the real thing - the design which will now be frozen for the rest of the season.