02.07.2004 After six hours of racing, during which time the rain played a frequent and critical role, the Larbre team was victorious in GTS at today’s second round of the LMES: LARBRE COMPETITION NURBURGRING LMES RACE REPORT
After
six hours of racing, during which time the rain played a frequent and critical
role, the Care Racing supported Larbre Competition team was victorious in the
GTS category at today’s second round of the Le Mans Endurance Series.
Christophe Bouchut drove a quite
superb final hour in his Prodrive built Ferrari 550 Maranello to take a lap and
a half back from the Vitaphone Saleen and pass it for 1st place in
class.
The Frenchman, who had also taken the start, took over from his young, Swiss
team mate, Steve Zacchia, just ten minutes after the final rain shower of the
race, and the decision to fit Michelin’s intermediate tyres at this pitstop was
crucial.
Up until that final hour, it had
been uncertain whether victory for Larbre was possible.
The Saleen’s pitstops had occurred at times which were more beneficial in terms
of decisions on tyres, and they had gained considerable time over the
Ferrari. Jack Leconte’s final words to Bouchut were, “If you can be quicker by
about 10 seconds a lap we might have a chance. See what you can do!”
Jack Leconte, Team Principal: “It
was a very interesting race because it rained approximately every hour and a
half and for strategy that was difficult. We have a very good relationship with
Michelin and they produced exceptional tyres and, having made the right choices,
we couldn’t be touched by any other car.
"The drivers didn’t make any mistakes, except the touch with the slower driver
near the beginning of the race [Bouchut with the Cirtek Ferrari GT], and it was
a great pleasure to be faster in the end than the fastest GTS car on the planet
this weekend. It’s a great victory which will remain in our memories for a long
time.”
Christophe Bouchut (F): “The weather conditions were very hard for all the teams and you were lucky if you made the right decision on tyres, some teams were lucky and some not. I am very happy that our tyres were working very well, and we made some good decisions regarding which ones we put on and for that I want to thank Michelin. It was a really great final hour!”
Pedro Lamy (P): “I had a difficult time in the car because I started my stint on slicks and then it started raining quite hard. I had to make another pit stop to fit intermediates and we lost some time because of that but afterwards I think I set a good, consistent pace but we had a lot of time to make up to catch the leader. It was great to finish 1st because, after that, I thought it would be impossible but in the end everything went well.”
Steve Zacchia (CH): “It was quite difficult towards the end of my stint because I was on slick tyres and it had started to rain. I had about 3 laps in the rain and it was really difficult but I stayed on the track and got the car back to pass the job onto Christophe. Other than that, I think my stint was good and I was driving very well, for me it was a good stint.”
Overall Result after 6 Hours: 1 Kaffer/McNish Audi 180 laps, 2 Davies/Herbert Audi 179 laps, 3 Minassian/Campbell Walter DBA 179 laps, 4 Capello/Ara Audi 170 laps, 5 Ayari/Helary Pescarolo 170 laps, 6 Short/Barbosa/Pearce Dallara 168 laps, 7 Erdos/Ramos/Newton MG Lola 167 laps, 8 Bouchut/Lamy/Zacchia Ferrari 550 (GTS) 165 laps, 9 Alzen/Bartels/Konrad Saleen (GTS) 165 laps, 10 Bennett/Gabbiani Saleen (GTS) 162 laps