Triumph for the Audi e-tron at the New Energies Rally in Český Krumlov

The Audi e-tron chalked up a resounding success in the second race of the season in the FIA Electric and New Energy Championship – E-Rally Regularity Cup, the world championship for electric vehicles. At the end of a tough race, victory went to the French-Polish driver Artur Prusak and his co-pilot Thierry Benchetrit from France, who were closely followed by Guido Guerrini and Emanuele Calchetti from the Audi Autotest Motorsport Team. The winners on the podium were complemented by Fuzzy Kofler and Franco Gaioni – the duo from South Tyrol staged a comeback after trailing in eighth and making a mistake on the first day, but rewarded themselves with a third-place finish.

The German pair Jan Rosner and Patrick Weber came fourth in a BMW i3s, followed by the local heroes and previous year’s winners Petr Pavlat and Tomas Brzek in a Volkswagen e-Golf. Alexandre Stricher from France, who won the opener in Greece, only came 15th in the second race of the season.

Josef Unterholzner, team principal of Audi Autotest Motorsport, was naturally very happy: “We achieved a magnificent result and are leading the manufacturers’ championship after two races. We mustn’t slacken our efforts now, but instead have to start working again to ensure we keep on improving from race to race.”

During the spectacular award ceremony in Český Krumlov, Guido Guerrini stressed that he had had a good feeling about this rally – on his four outings in the New Energies Rally in the Czech Republic, he has captured a spot on the rostrum four times, as a pilot and co-pilot. It was also the third podium in a row for Fuzzy Kofler and Franco Gaioni. Apart from a serious error on one of the total of 161 measurements zones in the race, the duo chalked up the best average in terms of penalties and won six of the 14 difficult special trials.