Car: #48 Oreca 03-Nissan LMP2
Qualification: 14th (6th in LMP2 class)
Fastest lap time: 3:39.877
Warren Hughes
“Everybody came away feeling very happy yesterday. To get P2 for the team in its first Le Mans qualifying session was a great start and a great lift for everyone. The car felt really good and we made good progress over the course of the two sessions and ticked all the boxes. Today, because we were happy with the car, we did not change a great deal. It was a relatively trouble free session for us this evening. We’ll now just try to unwind tomorrow before the torture starts on Saturday!”
Jody Firth
“The first time I stepped in to the car for qualifying was at night time, so it was good to get those qualification laps under our belt with no drama. We spent six laps getting our eye in yesterday and the car was relatively comfortable. In today’s session we had a chance to run in the daylight and verify everything that we had completed last night. The car feels very good. We’ve set the car up more for a comfortable race pace, of which it’s handling very neutrally, so we feel like we could push quite hard.
If there is going to be rain in the race, I would have preferred to have some running prior to going in, especially if the rain comes during the night. However it hasn’t materialised, which doesn’t worry me and so it’s just another thing to be aware of in terms of what the level of grip is going to be when it does eventually down pour.”
Brendon Hartley
“We used the first qualifying to get the laps in during the night and this was a really cool experience. It was the first time I had driven in the dark and I didn’t really know what to expect. All your references are completely different and you have to start from scratch. The way you perceive speed is different as well; you end up slowing the car a lot more because you feel like you are going a lot quicker than you actually are due because it’s like a tunnel vision that you have. But after a few laps I started to feel really comfortable, so I am quite comfortable going in to the darkness and am actually really looking forward to that part of the race. Today was our daytime qualifying, which we used more for set-up work than anything else, and we are comfortable that we have a good race car so we did not go chasing a lap time this evening.
Generally I am quite happy driving in the wet. Although there are a lot of corners on this track where there is no room for error, if it rains during the race I am quite confident of keeping the car on the track.”
Greg Murphy, Murphy Prototype Racing Founder
“The Murphy Prototypes team has had a satisfactory start to its Le Mans 24-hour campaign. The practice and qualifying programmes have all run to plan and the team and drivers have done an exceptional job. We are delighted to be here at such a fantastic and prestigious event and are very much looking forward to our inaugural 24 hours race on Saturday.”
