“I
had two goals for this week. One was to get pole position, which I did
– thanks to the Veloqx Prodrive team, and the other is to be on the top
step of the podium on Sunday afternoon.” Tomas Enge’s comments after the
end of the second day of practice/qualifying could not have been clearer,
and are voiced not only for himself but also his team-mates Jamie Davies
and Peter Kox.
Two Care Racing supported Ferrari 550 Maranellos will start ahead of all their other competitors in the GTS class in Saturday’s 71st running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, giving the Veloqx Prodrive Racing team the best possible start in its quest for victory.
No one managed to better the fastest lap time set yesterday by Tomas Enge in the Prodrive-built car (3:53.278), and Darren Turner today improved to 3:54.725, jumping ahead of the team’s closest rivals, Corvette Racing, in the final time sheets.
Further qualifying work was not part of today’s programme for the 88 car, with time being spent assessing different Michelin tyres for use in the race as well as carrying out longer runs to compile fuel efficiency data.
Having had a less than satisfactory day yesterday, Darren Turner and his team-mates in the nr.80 car [Kelvin Burt and Anthony Davidson] had worked hard with their engineer, Veloqx Motorsport’s Eddie Hinckley, to overcome some concerns on the set up of the car. That this was achieved was apparent when Darren improved his time by 1.5 seconds in the opening minutes of the night session.
The Briton commented afterwards, “We found some time in the car overnight but both my quick laps tonight were spoilt by yellow flags so I am actually still a bit disappointed. We didn’t have a great day yesterday so we needed a good one today and I think we are all pretty happy. It would have been nice to get a further go at pole but it wasn’t to be.”
Enge, from the Czech Republic, said, “Our battle with the Corvettes didn’t seem to happen today which is a shame because we really wanted to have a close qualifying session. We have found a good tyre for the weekend, as well as an excellent race set up so we are all looking forward to a really fantastic race.”
The Veloqx Prodrive team will spend the rest day tomorrow preparing the cars for the race, and the drivers will be appearing in the official Parade des Pilotes in the centre of Le Mans at 1800 hrs tomorrow (Friday).
