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Gounon Leads The Way On New Yokohama Advans |
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LE MANS SERIES - 1000KM OF DONINGTON PARK
Team Courage Competition mixed it with the frontrunners in today's British round of the Le Mans Series at Donington Park, with Jean-Marc Gounon leading the early stages of the six-hour race after starting from pole position.
Yokohama brought a revised medium-compound ADVAN race tyre to Donington Park, designed to give more grip on the type of circuit where cars run fastest with less aerodynamic downforce but need more 'mechanical' grip. Gounon had no doubt that this new tyre helped him set the fastest qualifying lap.
Gounon lead today's race for the first 18 laps, withstanding challenges from the Pescarolo of Jean-Christophe Boullion and then the Creation of Jamie Campbell-Walter. The nose-to-tail battle for the lead lasted until Gounon ran wide at Goddards corner and Campbell-Walter slipped through.
Gounon was fifth when he made his second scheduled pit-stop, after 67 laps of the 2.5- mile/4.03km circuit, and handed the car over to team-mate Gregor Fisken.
In the hands of Fisken, Alexander Frei, and Gounon again, the Courage ran for the remainder of the race between fourth and sixth positions. The car lost more than eight minutes in the pits when the team had to repair its under-floor, damaged in a collision with a stray backmarker, and lost a further minute when Frei was called in for a stop-go penalty for speeding in the pitlane. Even so, the number 12 Courage finished the race fifth overall and fourth in class.
The second Team Courage car, driven by Japan's Shinji Nakano and Haruki Kurosawara, failed to complete enough race laps to be classified as a finisher. Nakano had to stop early on with leg cramps, because a broken throttle cable had caused his accelerator pedal to slip out of reach, and later the car had to halt to replace faulty gearshift software.
In the GT2 category for production-based cars, the Farnbacher Racing Porsche 996 of Lars Erik Nielsen and Marco Seefried was withdrawn from the race because Nielsen was in pain from a shoulder injury. Seefried switched to Farnbacher's other ADVAN-shod Porsche 996, sharing driving duties with Pierre Ehret and Dominik Farnbacher, which moved up the field to finish fourth in class.
| No. |
Team |
Car |
Driver 1 |
Driver 2 |
Driver 3 |
Class position |
| 12 |
Courage Competition Courage |
LC70-Mugen |
JM Gounon |
A Frei |
G Fisken |
4 |
| 13 |
Courage Competition Courage |
LC70-Mugen |
S Nakano |
H Kurosawa |
|
DNF |
| 80 |
Farnbacher Racing |
Porsche 996 GT3 RSR |
LE Nielsen |
M Seefried |
|
DNS |
| 90 |
Farnbacher Racing |
Porsche 996 GT3 RSR |
P Ehret |
D Farnbacher |
M Seefried |
4 |
Jean-Marc Gounon, Courage Competition, #12 "We've made progress with the car, the engine, and the tyres, and we demonstrated that by taking pole position and leading the race. Leading isn't winning, of course, but it's a step towards it."
Claude Surmount, Courage Competition "At the Nurburgring [the previous race], we set fastest lap. Now we've had pole position and finished the race in a decent position. We're still in the development phase, but we are showing more of the potential of the car."
Akira Shiraishi, Manager, Yokohama Motorsport "People only remember the race winner, not pole position - but to win you have to be fast, and by getting pole position we have shown that we are now capable of being fast. Motorsport programmes are all about development and progress, and we are making progress."
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 06 January 2007 )
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