It’s probably a good job Audi chose to launch its new RS6 on a track built for the bike races of MotoGP. With the medium and fast bends of the Losail circuit in Qatar, I had the perfect chance to stretch all 572 horses lying in earnest under the bonnet of this über-saloon. And no, that’s not a misprint; you read that right: 572 German stallions.

To get your head around this figure, you need some perspective. The first thing to note is that the RS6 is the most powerful car Audi has ever built. The second is that its rivals, BMW’s M5 and the E63 from Mercedes, produce a “mere” 507 and 510bhp respectively. If there’s one statement you can make, it’s that this Ingolstadt bruiser packs some punch.

Not that you could really work this out in terms of aesthetics. The front bumper has a pair of wide air-inlets to cool the twin turbochargers, the square wheelarches hark back to the original 1980 Ur-quattro and two large tailpipes protrude from the rear, but that’s about it. Overall, it’s relatively anonymous and doesn’t look like it’ll bite the head off anything this side of an Aston Martin Vantage.

It’s the same story inside with the familiar but solid – and brilliant-as-always – dashboard arrangement. The sports seats, meanwhile, are very comfortable and the revised MMI controller is as intuitive as ever. You could say the interior is a bit sombre, but enjoy the fact it’s bullet-proof and move on. Everything starts to build up from here.

Starting up the V10, you get a very bassy and deep burble – weirdly enough, a bit like a V8. Push the right pedal down slowly and that burble increases in ferocity, rising to a high-revving baritone as you go through the second part of the 6,700-rpm rev range. It sounds much better from outside (the drama is a little muffled from within), but the biggest aural satisfaction comes when the transmission grabs the next ratio in 100-milliseconds at maximum acceleration and you get a deep, muffled boom and a surge of induction noise. It sounds like high-grade TNT blowing through a bombproof underground bunker.

And my-oh-my is it rapid. The noise might be slightly toned down, but there’s no denying it’s jaw-droppingly fast. With your right foot planted, you’ll see 100km/h in 4.5sec, 200km/h in 14.5 and 320 at the end, if you’ve managed to get rid of the 255-km/h limiter. With that, this 5-litre V10 effectively creates a new section for itself in the back of evo’s The Knowledge: the ‘It’s-a-saloon-but-should-really-be-a-supercar’ category.

Did anyone say ‘R8’? No? Thought not.

It brushes off speed extremely well too, and through fast bends, like those in Losail, you can throw the RS6 around and not have to worry. It has an immense amount of grip and, even though it has a 40/60 torque split front to rear, it’s undoubtedly four-wheel drive. There’s a bit of understeer but the Dynamic Ride Control, which uses fluid and not electronics to adjust damping, keeps it all in check. It rides well too, deflecting bumps and keeping its composure. Although on this point, more than just the few laps we got on the track are needed to test the full extent of the DRC. And not just on super-smooth track Tarmac (with only low kerbs), but on normal roads, with bumps, ridges and holes.

In terms of an Achilles heel, the RS6 has a big one: weight – all two tonnes of it. You find this out on Turn Six, which is a tight left-hander that exposes the RS6’s size and numb steering. It’s not that it isn’t quick or pointy enough, it’s the big engine on the nose. Even if you switch off the traction control and fling it around, it never becomes unsettled. It’s all very impressive and respectable, but not interesting.

The RS6 has many good points – the build quality, the brakes, the grip – but it’s really all about one thing: the engine. It’s all about the engine.