Christian Klien and Mathias Lauda took to the track for Pedrazza Racing Cars at the Red Bull Ring Classics on 29 August 2026. Competing in the Interwetten Sports Car Challenge, the two Austrians drove identical sports prototypes. The video captures their laps around the Red Bull Ring during Saturday morning’s second qualifying session.
Two cockpits, one circuit
The footage shows Lauda in the orange PRC WPR66 and Klien in its yellow counterpart. With the two cockpit views stacked vertically, viewers can compare the drivers directly as they tackle their laps around the Red Bull Ring.
For motorsport enthusiasts, the footage offers a fascinating look at the finer details of racing. Where do the drivers hit the brakes? How do they approach each corner, and how much of the track do they use when accelerating out of the turns? The speed readouts and gear indicators reveal even more about their driving techniques. Steering inputs and the racing lines they choose can also be compared directly.
In the laps shown, Klien records a time of 1:24.81, while Lauda completes his lap in 1:25.78. The previous day, however, the gap between the two Austrians had been considerably smaller, with the positions reversed. In Friday’s opening qualifying session, Lauda secured pole position by just 0.123 seconds ahead of Klien.
560 horsepower, ten corners and 65 metres of elevation change
Both drivers have a powerful sports prototype at their disposal in the PRC WPR66. The open-cockpit racing car is powered by a 3.5-litre Cosworth V8 producing around 560 horsepower. In the video, both drivers reach speeds exceeding 260 km/h on the straights.
The Red Bull Ring provides an ideal setting to showcase the capabilities of these cars. The 4.326-kilometre circuit features ten corners and 65 metres of elevation change. After the opening corner, named after Niki Lauda, the track climbs steeply through the Münzer corner towards the tight Interwetten corner. The slowest section of the circuit demands precise braking after the long uphill run.
The second half of the lap features a series of flowing corners before the drivers sweep through the final two high-speed turns and return to the start-finish straight. Seen side by side, the two onboard views show clearly how differently each section of the circuit has to be driven.
A home race for two Austrian motorsport veterans
Christian Klien made 49 Formula 1 race starts between 2004 and 2010 and also gained endurance racing experience at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. For the Interwetten brand ambassador, competing at Spielberg was a home race.
Mathias Lauda has an extensive motorsport career of his own. The son of three-time Formula 1 world champion Niki Lauda competed in both the DTM and the FIA World Endurance Championship. In 2017, he won the FIA Endurance Trophy for GTE Am Drivers alongside Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana.
The eagerly anticipated head-to-head battle between the two Austrians ultimately failed to materialise in the race due to technical problems. Their onboard footage nevertheless provides a revealing look at what both drivers can do behind the wheel of identical racing prototypes at the Red Bull Ring.
