Sportscars Race Reports

For almost four years, Steve Saleen and his Speedlab team have been looking toward the future and eyeing their strategic return to the world's greatest sportscar race.

Audi confirmed their status as top dogs at Le Mans as Tom Kristensen set fastest time in the factory Audi, ahead of the first customer chassis of Ralf Kelleners in the Champion-prepared R8.

Panoz's preparations for the 2001 24 Hours of Le Mans began in the worst possible way on Sunday when a small fire damaged the lead LMP07 slated for David Brabham, Jan Magnussen and Franck Lagorce ending their test day after less than a dozen laps.

While the grand prix world mourned the death of Michele Alboreto, speculation as to the cause of his death continued.

Family, friends, companions and fans attended the funeral of Audi works driver Michele Alboreto at a service held at the Catholic Parrocchia Gesu Salvatore church in Basiglio, Italy, this afternoon [Friday].

Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo will attend Michele Alboreto's funeral, which takes place this afternoon in Milan. Alongside Montezemolo will be some of the mechanics who had worked with the driver during the five years he spent with the Prancing Horse team.

Niki Lauda and Alain Prost are among those paying tribute to former grand prix star Michele Alboreto killed yesterday while testing for the Le Mans 24 Hours.

The flagship MG racing project for 2001 will be the Le Mans 24 hour sports car race, where they will enter the all-new MG Lola EX257, designed and built by Lola Cars International, with input from MG Rover.

Former F1 driver Michele Alboreto was killed today in an Audi R8 on the Lausitzring circuit near Dresden in Germany while preparing for the Le Mans 24 Hours.