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Yokohama Advan Qualify Up Front With Courage |
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Monday, 25 September 2006 |
Yellow flags kept Yokohama ADVAN and Team Courage Competition from claiming their second Le Mans Series pole position in as many meetings at Jarama this afternoon.
Jean-Marc Gounon drove the Courage LC70 Mugen ADVAN to second place with a time of 1m23.799s, closely followed by Shinji Nakano in the sister car. The time was set in an incident-hampered second half of the qualifying session, allowing the drivers very few clear runs. Earlier the team had opted to bide its time before sending a car out – a decision which may have cost it pole position.
After claiming Yokohama ADVAN’s first ever LMS pole position at
Donington Park last month, the team is now confident the manufacturer’s
tyres will be a crucial ingredient in delivering its next landmark -
the first win.
The fifth round of the LMS, in Spain, marks the end of the 2006 season
and although Pescarolo Sport claimed the LMP1 champion’s crown at
Donington, second place has yet to be decided.
Yokohama ADVAN’s team in the LMGT2 class, Farnbacher Racing, came
seventh in class with the Porsche 996 GT3 RSR and will be starting 27th
overall in tomorrow’s race.
Yves Courage, Courage Competition: “Of course we are
disappointed to start only second and third but the race is not over,
we will be fiercely competitive tomorrow!”
Jean- Marc Gounon, Courage Competition: “I was five tenths
slower in qualifying than in practice this morning, which is a shame as
we could have been on pole today – the car is fantastic, it is good
everywhere now. We are consistent almost everywhere now.”
Akira Shiraishi, Yokohama: “We are very optimistic for
tomorrow’s race. Starting second and third is a great result for us and
we will be challenging for the lead. This really shows that our pole
position in the last round was not due to luck but the result of great
work between the team and Yokohama ADVAN.”
The six hour race will start at 12.00 on Sunday 24th September. Extensive coverage will be shown on Motors TV.
Qualifying Times
| Pos. |
Drivers |
Team |
Car |
Time |
| Qualifying (LMP1): |
| 1 |
Emmanuel Collard/Jean-Christophe Boullion/Didier Andre |
Perscarolo Sport |
Pescarolo C60 Judd |
1:23:242 |
| 2 |
Jean-Marc Gounon/Gregor Fisken/Alexander Frei |
Courage Competition |
Courage LC70 Mugen |
1:23:799 |
| 3 |
Shinji Nakano/Haruki Kurosawa |
Courage Competition |
Courage LC70 Mugen |
1:24:239 |
| Qualifying (LMGT2): |
| 1 |
Marc Lieb/Joel Camathias |
Autorlando Sport |
Porsche 996 GT3 RSR |
1:33:574 |
| 2 |
Luca Drudi/Gabrio Rosa/Fabrizio De Simone |
GPC Sport |
Ferrari 430 GT |
1:33:971 |
| 3 |
Dan Eagling/Tim Sugden |
Virgo Motorsport |
Ferrari 430 GT |
1:34:004 |
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| 7 |
Pierre Ehret/Marco Seefried |
Farnbacher Racing |
Porsche 996 GT3 RSR |
1:34:939 |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 13 December 2006 )
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