Don't get me wrong - you have to take care not to drive it like someone who really doesn't have a clue (IE, lots of high gear, low revs and large throttle openings) which would give any clutch a hard time but in normal everyday driving (both steady and spirited) I've never had any other issues.
And therein lies the rub for anyone used to driving Diesels - you have to change down far more often to get the best out of the R, i'm used to it now but it took a short while. I think Chris (mcmaddy) might struggle initially to adjust to the petrol way of driving for the first few weeks/months with his GTI after a string of diesels, it's a completely different way of driving and driving the R/GTI with higher than stock output like a diesel with lazy torque use is far more likely too cook the clutch.
I drive the wife's A1 the same way I drive the R - milk the lower gears when I want to make rapid progress, it seems to run out of puff higher up the rev range than the GTD, but has a lot less power and torque (4th and 5th gear is pretty weak with the 116ps output).
