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"Getting to the end is a huge
achievement in itself, given the amount of cars and drivers that got into
trouble out there, and was some consolation for the Team Felbermayr-Proton crew
after all of their hard work."
Davison was selected to start the
race, doing so from first in LM GT2 after the pole-sitting Imsa Performance
Matmut Porsche was sent to the back of the grid after a pre-grid
infringement.
He led the opening lap and settled
into a rhythm, letting several cars running softer tyres through in the early
stages to maintain a strong top-four position.
Over the following hours, Henzler
and Davison rotated the class lead with the #82 Ferrari F430 of Mika Salo, Gimmi
Bruni and Jamie Melo as the two cars made pitstops.
All the while, the Porsche made
inroads into the Ferrari's overall lead, with Davison setting a string of
fastest laps during a double-stint to reduce the deficit to 24 seconds, having
been almost one minute earlier in the race.
With Henzler behind the wheel just
before midnight, the car was forced into the pits for gearbox repairs, ending
the team's charge for class victory and costing them an almost-certain class
podium.
"Starting the race and leading the
class on my first-ever racing lap of Le Mans was a great feeling," he
said.
"Over the next few hours we were
maintaining a really strong pace, Wolf and I were comfortable in the car and we
had halved the Ferrari's lead before the gearbox problem
struck."
Over the remaining 15 hours, Davison
continued to set impressive laptimes in a number of double and triple stints,
regularly the fastest LM GT2 competitor on track without putting a foot wrong in
challenging conditions including night tracktime and wet
weather.
After 24 hours, the #77 Team
Felbermayr-Proton Porsche had completed 309 laps in the race, which was won
outright by the Audi prototype of Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Dindo
Capello, while the #82 Ferrari went on to win LM GT2.
"Overall, it has been an awesome
experience and something I'll remember forever," Davison said of Le
Mans.
"The circuit is amazing, it's up
there with anything I have ever driven on before, and the build-up and
atmosphere at the event is incredible.
"Unfortunately we had the gearbox
problem which cost us a lot of time mid-race, but we're proud of our performance
and what we achieved."
Davison's next race will be Round
Four of the European Le Mans Series, the Nurburgring 1000km in Germany on 15-17
August.
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