The European Le Mans Series (ELMS) got underway with the 4 Hours of Silverstone and the ACO put on a great event with a huge field of LMP2s and GTs. We saw an epic race with Tristain Gommendy putting in a great final stint to take an unlikely win for the TDS Oreca.
The results can be found here.
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LMP2
Greaves Zytek, Silverstone @mcmurrymatt pic.twitter.com/Ef8ZN1hBfI
— Anthony Florio (@atflorio) April 19, 2014
Chris Dyson – Caterham
It was a pretty good run at Silverstone today. Really proud of the job our young charge Matt McMurry did in his ELMS debut. Tom Kimber-Smith pushed hard at the end and put in some big laps and we almost got on the podium. Really positive start to the season and it’s onto Imola next!
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Simon Dolan (GB) – Jota Sport “I’m gutted – especially for the Filipe, Harry and the JOTA team – everyone had worked so hard. The Zytek was fantastic allowing me to run long stints on the tyres. It’s a great, great shame our race ended the way it did. But I’m very grateful to Zytek Engineering for building such a strong car that saved me from any injuries – thankfully I’m only a little bruised and battered.”
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Léo Thomas, Technical Director – Loeb Racing We were hoping for a better result with the two cars. The LM P2 and GTC races were different, but there is one thing in common : the guys did good work during the pit stops and that’s a positive that we must remember. In LM P2, we have to keep in mind that it’s a return to the discipline for us. We were lacking in performance and we will analyse why. Nonetheless, we gained experience and logged a lot of data. That’s important with the 24 Hours of Le Mans coming up. As for the lAudi R8 LMS ultra, we had a solid race with the balance of performance a question mark before the race. The three drivers did a good job and the team is right there in terms of pit stops, but we could have optimised our strategy and therefore gotten a better result. Fourth place would have been more in line with our performance. We will really look over our performance this weekend. We will be looking to get as much out of it as possible to up our momentum heading into the next races.”
Première manche et premier podium pour NewBlood by Morand Racing http://t.co/6NdxrUVa3N pic.twitter.com/g7ZJBiN6dc
— IG AUTORENNSPORT (@Autorennsport) April 20, 2014
Christian Klein – Morand Racing
“The team did a very good job today. It was a difficult race in terms of traffic handling. We had a good car which was pretty fast throughout the whole race. Gary did a good job, and Romain made no mistakes for his first race with the Morgan. It is very good to start the season with a podium finish.”
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Philippe Sinault – Team Principal Signatech-Alpine
“We knew we had our work cut out to make the A450 work on the Michelin tyres developed specially for the new regulations. The drivers, the whole team did a fantastic job and these important points are all down to them. Alpine and Michelin will both now focus on improving the car further in order to play a front-running role at Imola! The racing is clearly going to be close this year, so this weekend’s points could prove very valuable.”
GTE
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Rudi Penders – ProSpeed Competition Team Principal
“To fully succeed in motorsport one needs to master countless components. This includes race facts and elements. Today it took but mere moment, as furtive as it might seem, to drop down five places in our category. Luckily the analysis of the performances is encouraging. Our strategy to start off the race with the car in the hands of Maxime was excellent. A superb start and a P2 position following the first relay were proof of the cards we held. It’s now up to us to continue in this momentum and to work even more when it comes down to communication.”
GTC
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Mike Parisy – Loeb Racing
“I had a little trouble with the balance of the car at the start of the race, but things got better as the laps unfolded » explains Olivier Lombard. « As the car handled better and better, I was able to gain several positions. The first half of my second stint also went well, but at the end of that stint I found myself behind a BMW and I didn’t want to take any risks. Overall, I’m happy because I progressed during the weekend. We knew that the balance of performance wouldn’t be to our advantage here, and with that in mind, our result today is interesting. We ran for a long time just outside a podium finish. Thanks to the team for a job well done.”
Text and images via press materials
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