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First race
and first win for the new
Audi
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Allan McNish reminded
everyone of his class as a
driver with his brilliant
passing moves on Stéphane
Sarrazin and Stefan
Mücke at the very
beginning of the race. Audi
took the victory - not a
prediction many would have
made ahead of
Sunday’s
season opener in Le
Castellet, but Audi’s
drivers have praised the
performance of the new R15.
Reliability has been good,
and so has the speed,
suggesting that the German
car manufacturer is
very well placed to
claim another victory in one
month at Spa, even if
Peugeot should come back
stronger. If Stéphane
Sarrazin and the
ORECA-Matmut Peugeot 908 HDi
FAP was on pole
yesterday, a mechanical
issue put
an early end to the
hope of victory, and the
expected duel came to a
sudden end.
The race has been
flawless for the German
team, as Allan McNish
explained: “This is very
special because this is the
first
victory of a new
car. I think we
equaled the record – with
the R8, the R10 and the R15
we took the victory at the
very first
race. We had good
grip and the car was nice to
drive. The race was tough
because we didn’t test so
much.”
Would Aston Martin Racing
carry on where they left off
in 2009? It may seem a
reasonable assumption, given
the speed
and reliability that
the British team has shown
today on the Paul Ricard
circuit. Stefan Mücke
briefly
led the race at the
beginning after a
move on Stéphane Sarrazin
and Allan McNish, but the
Scottish driver overtook
again almost immediately.
Second place was
perhaps a surprise because
the #009 car
was not as fast as
the ORECA-Matmut Peugeot,
but reliability
is as important as
speed.
Stefan Mücke
explained: “The race has not
been easy for us
because we
had to push for the
whole race. We didn’t expect
such a good result.
This is a bit of a surprise.
We had a small
problem at the end,
but the car has been good
and consistent.”
Rebellion Racing
recovered extremely well
after their engine
problems on Friday
morning. The team from
Switzerland could
not run for the
second practice session
because they had to
change the engine.
The team had made a big step
forward
over the winter, and
can be happy with
their progress although
Jean-Christophe
Boullion only set the
qualifying session’s fifth
best time yesterday.
Jean-Christophe
Boullion was surprised to be
on the podium: “I am
delighted because I
joined a new team
over the winter.
The team did a great
job because we had no
problem on the car. We were
not expecting a podium after
the practice
sessions – we didn’t
have the speed to be on the
podium.”
STRAKKA
RACING TURNS THE
TABLES
The LMP2 category saw
the first ever victory of a
Honda Performance
Development ARX 01 on this
side of the Atlantic.
Great preparation and
teamwork from Strakka Racing
allowed Danny
Watts, Jonny Kane and
Nick Leventis to put up a
memorable drive
especially when they had to
recover from a mechanical
issue. The 1.44.989
qualifying lap put by Danny
Watts was impressive
as was the evolution of Nick
Leventis that picked
up a lot of speed to drive a
solid race to the win
together with his
teammates. Strakka Racing
claimed another trophy this
weekend with the Michelin
Green X Challenge,
which means that the
British
team has been the
best performer while using
the least amount of fuel.
Audi on top form
Race, 8 Hours of Le
Castellet – Sunday April 11,
2010
Danny Watts was delighted
after the race: “We spent 12
minutes in the pits
and we had to fight
back. Every lap was a
qualifying lap and
the car was flying. The
tires were perfect. The team
kept me posted with the gap,
but after I took the lead,
I could control the
pace.”
Two cars challenged
the
British prototype seriously
during the race - the OAK
Racing Pescarolo-Judd from
Richard Hein
and Guillaume Moreau
and the RML Lola-HPD from
Tommy Erdos, Mike Newton and
Andy Wallace. What a big
surprise for
the
French team! An
engine failure claimed the
#35 car on Friday morning
and the car started the race
from the pit-lane as it
didn’t run for the
qualifying session. RML is
glad to be back on the
podium after a very bitter
season last year due
to many
engine failures.
Team Applewood Seven
finally claimed the trophy
in the Formula Le Mans
class. A few laps before the
end of the race,
David Zollinger took
the lead after Mathias Beche
spun. So Hope Pole
Vision finished second, two
laps ahead of Dams
third.
PORSCHE WINS THE
FIRST BATTLE
The Larbre
Compétition Saleen was the
only car in the GT1 class
and the three drivers tested
the car in race
conditions as
the opposition will
be back at Spa. The
checkered flag was a relief
for Patrice Goueslard, who
has been hit by a prototype
during the warm-up
this morning and by another
one during the race.
The GT2 class
is getting stronger
and stronger with 13 cars,
and all of them can
fight for the podium. Today,
the winner is
Porsche and the
reigning champion Team
Felbermayr-
Proton. Richard Lietz
qualified second yesterday
but took
the
lead early in the
race thanks to a good
strategy as Marc Lieb
said: “I am very,
very happy to be here
because a damper
broke at the front
and the car was jumping a
lot. Fortunately,
it was not too
difficult to drive,
and the Ferrari had
to pit one
more time. For us,
this is a 1-2 victory.”
Jean Alesi was on the
podium for his first race in
sportscars
with his AF Corse
Ferrari. “The race was long!
But Giancarlo
and I had a very good
teacher
with Toni Vilander. I
had a
good fight at the beginning
of the race because all the
GT2s
were running together.
Then I had traffic and it is
new for
me. It is good to be
here.”
Redazione
11 aprile 2010
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