New champions laud Audi team

The Audi 'junior' squad scooped the championship after Peugeot rivals Nicolas Minassian and Marc Gene, who came into the series finale with a two point lead, crashed out of the race in the second hour.

"I am really, really happy, and I think it showed how good Audi is and how strong Team Joest is," said Rockenfeller. "For sure this year we didn't have the quicker car, Peugeot was very strong, and again the team work and the team spirit was proved at the end of the year."

The No.2 Audi crew did not win a single race this season and admitted they won the championship on the strength of their consistency.

"We tried our best this year," said Rockenfeller. "Our goal was to score points in every race, and if we had not had the penalty (at Silverstone) we would have finished on the podium all five times."

Rockenfeller and Premat who had led comfortably for a long period in the race, eventually finished fourth at Silverstone.

But the Frenchman revealed afterwards that he feared the championship might slip away in the final hour of the Autosport 1000km.

"The race was really hard for us and we couldn't relax until the last lap, because in the last 30 minutes we had a failure on the right-rear suspension and for sure I was freaking out in the car," Premat said. "I wasn't sure if we could start again. I was really scared.

"But in the end Audi repaired it and did a very good job. We missed out on third place but I think we can be happy with what we have done this year.

"Our target was to learn and then to win. Okay so we didn't win any races, but we won the championship and this is very good."

After the race, Audi Motorsport boss Dr Wolfgang Ullrich said he was very proud of his championship winners, adding that the victory was sweeter given that Peugeot had enjoyed such a pace advantage for much of the season.

"It was a great season for the LMS, we had a big battle for the whole season," he said.

"We could not be on the pace, like today, all the year. But we always try to be there. It just brings more value to the victory if you can beat a competitor that is this special."