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New Advans Put Gounon In Pole Position For Le Mans Series Race |
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Pole position for tomorrow's British round of the Le Mans Series, the Donington Park 1,000 Kilometres, was seized in the last minutes of timed qualifying this afternoon by Frenchman Jean- Marc Gounon (Courage-Mugen) - an achievement Gounon attributed to his new and improved Yokohama ADVAN racing tyres.
Gounon had set the fastest lap early on in the qualifying session, with a lap of the sweeping Donington Park circuit in 1min 21.756s, but he was bumped to second place when Stefan Johansson (Zytek), the former Ferrari and McLaren Formula 1 star, recorded a lap of 1min 20.869s. Just one lap before the chequered flag came out, Gounon claimed pole position back with a 1min 20.756sec (179.340 km/h).
Gounon shares driving duties in his car tomorrow, in a race that's expected to last six hours, with Gregor Fisken and Alexander Frei.
The other ADVAN-shod Courage of Shinji Nakano and Haruki Kurosawa qualified sixth fastest, in a field of 43 cars, with a best lap of 1min 21.283s (178.177km/h). Kuorsawa believed he could have set a faster time, but was unable to find an optimum lap clear of traffic.
The race starts at 12.30 British Summer Time, 13.30 Central European Time, and will be broadcast live by Motors TV.
| No. |
Team |
Car |
Driver 1 |
Driver 2 |
Driver 3 |
Class position |
| 12 |
Courage Competition Courage |
LC70-Mugen |
JM Gounon |
G Frisken |
A Frei |
1 |
| 13 |
Courage Competition Courage |
LC70-Mugen |
S Nakano |
H Kurosawa |
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6 |
| 90 |
Farnbacher Racing |
Porsche 996 GT3 RSR |
P Ehret |
D Farnbacher |
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8 |
| 80 |
Farnbacher Racing |
Porsche 996 GT3 RSR |
LE Nielsen |
M Seefried |
I Baas |
13 |
Jean-Marc Gounon, Courage Competition (car #12): "I'm very happy for the Courage team and very happy for Yokohama, who have worked hard to improve. This structure of the tyre has been changed, and on a low downforce track like this it's giving more grip. The tyre sets a new standard for this car, something really good to work with - and I honestly think that with a different differential set-up I could have gone four- or five-tenths [of a second] faster."
Claude Surmont, Courage Competition: "In the free practice sessions this morning we concentrated on trying different tyres on longish stints. We knew then that we had something good and that we could have the two cars in front."
Akira Shiraishi, Yokohama Motorsport: "We are always working to improve performance - that's why we go motor racing, it drives innovation - and this is a great reflection of our efforts. Jean-Marc pushed hard and recorded a great lap. If both cars can survive the race tomorrow without incidents, they should do well."
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 06 January 2007 )
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