Beaumesnil on GTE Le Mans BoP
ACO Sporting Director Vincent Beaumesnil was clearly delighted at the results of the Le Mans 24 Hours GTE Pro Balance of Performance:
“The cars were close together on pace and we had an excellent race with each of the makes involved in the lead battle. It would be difficult to have envisaged a better result of the work that the team did that that, the GTE Pros were closer together as a group than the LMP2s, which all share the same engine!”
Porsche with pedigree racing in Porsche Motorsport support race
One surprise sighting here came in the supporting Porsche Motorsport Race Weekend race, the #125 Porsche 911 GT3-R still sporting the livery it carried as a factory-backed car at this year’s Bathurst 12-hour (Laurens Vanthoor’s debut as a Porsche factory driver), the car also campaigned in 2016 at both Macau and Sepang. It’s now in private hands
ByKolles struggling for pace
The ByKolles team is suffering with a major vibration issue this weekend, the team battling the issue which is causing all three drivers major issues. The team is set to withdraw from the remainder of the 2017 FIA WEC after tomorrow’s race to concentrate on developing its car ahead of the 2018 season.
Hughes in action
Warren Hughes is here at the Nürburgring fulfilling driver coaching duties for Russian Formula V8 3.5 driver Matevos Isaakayan, the SMP Racing by AVF driver set for a sportscar debut next weekend at the Red Bull Ring aboard SMP Racing’s LMP2 Dallara Gibson alongside his Formula V8 team-mate Egor Orudzhev.
In Race 1 this weekend, Isaakayan took the win, with Orudzhev third.
Extra motivation for Aston’s drivers
Aston Martin Racing drivers have the extra motivation this weekend of trying to repeat their performance at Le Mans, and take the win.
In the driver’s lounge in the team garage, several big pictures are displayed, with key shots from each race of the season so far (above), and a wall of question marks on the remaining races (below).
“We’ve been doing this since last year,” AMR team principal Paul Howarth said to DSC. “I told the guys after Le Mans, you have to enjoy the moment. And those moments are what we want to keep creating. So we put up the story of the season in pictures where the drivers will see them, as well as a display of the task in hand. So far it’s worked pretty well!”
Booth weighs in on the Hirschi penalty
Manor’s John Booth spoke to DSC this morning in the wake of the seven-minute Stop and Hold penalty handed to the team’s #24 ORECA 07 after Jonathan Hirschi made contact with the #66 Ford under a red flag in Free Practice 2, shedding light of what happened.
“Jonathan made a mistake, he passed Stefan (Mucke) under red flags, the evidence is pretty clear from the onboard. Unfortunately coming out of the corner, they made contact and Jonathan spun round. To be honest I thought it was innocuous on both sides but because he put himself there illegally, he has to shoulder the blame for it.
“It’s a very harsh penalty, but passing under red flags is one of the most serious infringements you can do. Be prepared to stop, you need to, there may be danger ahead. I’ve known stewards in the past take more severe actions for this sort of thing.”
