Christian Abt

Christian Abt(born 8 May 1967) is a formerrace cardriverand entrepreneur born inKempten,Germany.

Christian Abt
Christian Abt in 2008
Nationality	German
Born	(1967-05-08)8 May 1967 Kempten,West Germany
Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters
Racing licence	FIA Silver
Years active	2000–2007
Former teams	Abt Sportsline Joest Racing Phoenix Racing
Starts	102
Wins	1
Podiums	9
Poles	2
Fastest laps	8
Best finish	7th in2002
24 Hours of Le Manscareer
Years	1999–2000
Teams	Audi Sport UK Audi Sport Team Joest
Best finish	3rd (2000)
Class wins	0

His elder brother Hans-Jürgen Abt runs theAbt SportslineAudiracing teams as well as their tuning company forAudiandVolkswagen.

Career History

Christian Abt started his career inmotocross.In 1983, Abt became the German Motocross Champion. From 1986 to 1988, he won the German OMK Motocross Cup of the Southern Group in the 125 cc class three times. In 1990, Abt switched to four wheels with the ADAC Formula School and won the title.

In 1991, Abt won the Formula BMW Junior with a 29-point lead over the later rally driverLars Mysliwietz.A year later, Abt finished 13th in theGerman Formula 3 Championshipand was the overall winner of the B rating. Abt remained in formula racing until 1995 but was unable to achieve notable success compared to his first years. In 1996, he switched totouring carsand finished fourth in the family-owned racing team in theSuper Tourenwagen Cup.In the following two years, Abt was placed in the midfield of theSuper Tourenwagen Cup.

In 1999, Abt became the last champion of theSuper Tourenwagen Cupin a controversial finale. Before the race at the Nürburgring, both Abt and Opel driverUwe Alzenhad chances for the title. At the end of the last lap, the order on the track was as follows:Kris Nissen(Abt Audi),Uwe Alzen,Christian Abt, and behind themRoland Asch(Opel). Nissen had already been lapped and was clearly holding up the following drivers. Asch had been disqualified earlier due to an incident but had not left the track. Alzen and Abt were in second and third place, behindTom Kristensen(Honda). With this order, Abt would have been champion with an eight-point lead. In the NGK chicane, Nissen and Alzen first collided after the latter missed his braking point. In the last corner, Asch and Abt touched, causing Abt to retire. Alzen, who could continue with a broken suspension, would have been the champion. However, 24 days later, the DMSB Sports Court decided not to count the last lap of the race, awarding the championship to Abt.

In 2000, Abt-Sportsline entered theDTMas a private team. However, the performance of theAudiTT-R was significantly disadvantaged compared to the factory-built AMG Mercedes CLK-DTM and Opel Astra V8 Coupé. The same year, Abt finished third withTeam Joestat the24 Hours of Le Mans.

His best overall placement in theDTMwas seventh place in 2002. In 2005, Abt switched teams and got a year-old car fromAudi SportTeam Joest Racing. After a mixed season in 2007, Abt ended his career in the DTM. In 2008, Abt started for Tolimit Motorsport in thePorsche Carrera Cup Germanyand finished 14th overall.

In 2009, Abt won theADAC GT Mastersand was runner-up at the 2009 24 Hours of Nürburgring. With Team Prosperia UHC Speed, Abt was 33rd overall in the GT Masters. The following year, Abt took over the team and served as team manager until 2016.

In 2017, after a five-year hiatus as a driver, Abt finished third in the SP-X category at the 2017 24 Hours of Nürburgring.

Personal Life

Christian Abt has been married and has two children - Nina and Emely.

In June 2017, Abt ended his three-year career as a city councillor for the Free Voters inKempten.

Christian Abt is not the only race driver in his family. His father Johann Abt started racing in 1952 with aDKWmotorcycle.

His brother, Hans-Jürgen Abt, competed in the Ford Fiesta Mixed Cup and theADAC GT Cup,among others. His wife, Margit Abt, was active in the Ford Fiesta Mixed Cup and theSeat Leon Supercopa.Their sonDaniel Abtdrove in theFIA Formula E Championshipfrom 2014 to 2020.

Racing record

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1999	Audi SportUK Ltd.	Stefan Johansson Stéphane Ortelli	Audi R8C	LMGTP	55	DNF	DNF
2000	Audi Sport Team Joest	Michele Alboreto Rinaldo Capello	Audi R8	LMP900	365	3rd	3rd
Sources:

Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters results

(key) (Races inboldindicate pole position) (Races initalicsindicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	DC	Points
2000	Abt Sportsline 1	Abt-Audi TT-R 2000	HOC 1 Ret	HOC 2 Ret	OSC 1	OSC 2	NOR 1 Ret	NOR 2 DNS	SAC 1 Ret	SAC 2 DNS	NÜR 1 18	NÜR 2 18	LAU 1 C	LAU 2 C	OSC 1 10	OSC 2 Ret	NÜR 1 19	NÜR 2 14	HOC 1 Ret	HOC 2 Ret			19th	1
2001	Team Abt Sportsline	Audi TT-R DTM 2001	HOC QR 10	HOC CR 10	NÜR QR NC	NÜR CR Ret	OSC QR 8	OSC CR 6	SAC QR 3	SAC CR 9	NOR QR 5	NOR CR 17	LAU QR 5	LAU CR 18	NÜR QR 3	NÜR CR DSQ	A1R QR 18	A1R CR DNS	ZAN QR 1	ZAN CR 2	HOC QR 8	HOC CR 11	10th	29
2002	Abt Sportsline	Abt-Audi TT-R	HOC QR 4	HOC CR 7	ZOL QR 5	ZOL CR 2	DON QR 12	DON CR 2	SAC QR 8	SAC CR 16†	NOR QR DSQ	NOR CR DNS	LAU QR 3	LAU CR 7	NÜR QR 5	NÜR CR 9	A1R QR 12	A1R CR 9	ZAN QR 2	ZAN CR 7	HOC QR 5	HOC CR 13	7th	15
2003	Abt Sportsline	Abt-Audi TT-R 2003	HOC 20†	ADR DSQ	NÜR 8	LAU 9	NOR 7	DON Ret	NÜR Ret	A1R Ret	ZAN 11	HOC 9											12th	3
2004	Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi A4 DTM 2004	HOC Ret	EST 10	ADR Ret	LAU 9	NOR 14†	SHA1 Ret	NÜR 13	OSC 9	ZAN Ret	BRN 12	HOC 8										16th	1
2005	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi A4 DTM 2004	HOC 4	LAU 9	SPA 10	BRN 6	OSC 12	NOR 2	NÜR 10	ZAN 10	LAU Ret	IST Ret	HOC 14										9th	16
2006	Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi A4 DTM 2005	HOC Ret	LAU Ret	OSC 17	BRH 5	NOR 10	NÜR 10	ZAN Ret	CAT 10	BUG 9	HOC 7											13th	6
2007	Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi A4 DTM 2006	HOC Ret	OSC 10	LAU 17†	BRH 8	NOR 10	MUG Ret	ZAN 6	NÜR 15	CAT 11†	HOC 15											16th	4
Sources:

¹- Shanghai was a non-championship round.

• † — Retired, but was classified as he completed 90% of the winner's race distance.

External links

• Christian Abt
• Abt Sportsline company