Frustration for McNishposted in LMANS01 | 12 | 2013
NEWLY-CROWNED WORLD ENDURANCE champ, Scot Allan McNish, finished the season kicking his heels in frustration at the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain.
The 43-year-old from Dumfries, who sealed the FIA World Endurance Championship last month in China, was hoping to round the season off with his fourth win of the year in the Bahrain finale.
But having qualified his Audi R18 e-tron quattro fourth, McNish (pictured with team-mate Tom Kristensen) didn't even get the chance to compete in the Six Hours of Bahrain.
After his co-driving team-mates, Tom Kristensen and Loïc Duval, had eased the car up to second place, the Audi spluttered to a halt before mid-distance and just before McNish was due to take the wheel.
"Tom and Loïc had fantastic stints and I’d got my helmet on to take over from Loïc when I looked at the TV screen and saw he had come to a stop out on the track," McNish, whose retirement was his first for two years, said today.
"It was a shame as we were in striking distance of catching the leading Toyota when we had a drive related technical problem."
Related: Allan McNish — world champ
It was a frustrating end to what has been the most successful season of McNish's career.
The Scot won three rounds of the world championship — including the Le Mans 24-Hours for the third time — and added another three seconds and one third place in the eight race series.
“It’s been a fantastic year," McNish admitted. "Tom, Loïc and I secured big wins starting off at Silverstone and winning the Tourist Trophy on ‘home’ soil, then Le Mans and at Austin, and to effectively tie up the World Championship title one race early was a superb achievement for everybody at Audi Sport and for our car crew.
“Today was disappointing, however one race doesn’t make a championship and overall we have had a tremendous season and we were taking the race as we should have done, attacking from the start with a good strategy, and trying to win.”
The race was eventually won by the Toyota of Anthony Davidson, Sebastien Buemi and Stephane Sarrazin.
The trio finished 1min 10.585secs ahead of the car driven by McNish's Audi team-mates Benoit Treluyer, Marcel Fassler and Andre Lotterer.
Related: Allan McNish wins Le Mans 24-Hours
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Jim McGill