Rnd 4 3rd – 4th September 2005
Key Facts Track Length: 5.137 km Race: 1000 km - 193 laps – 6 hours Total starters: 44 Total finishers: 33 Dunlop starters: 12 Dunlop finishers: 9 Fastest race lap: 1:46.042
Drivers Marc Lieb and Xavier Pompidou were delighted with the GR2 race win, the championship victory and the tyres. “To win three races in a row is a fantastic feeling.” said Lieb. His team mate added “The shame is that we haven’t enough budget to test so we made a safe choice for the start of the race because we have to mark the qualifying tyres on which we start the race before the last practice.
After the last practice session we knew that the right choice was to put the new construction on the rear and it was much more consistent – not so much faster as less understeer, easier to drive. So perfect. Another victory was for the Dutch Spyker Squadron, not only being classified for the first time but claiming a second place on the podium. Jeroem Bleekemolen was beaming at the after-race press conference: “All the others had problems – we had a good pace and two quick drivers so we moved up.
Dunlop’s best overall finish was Jota in 6th after a fantastic recovering from a first lap shunt which left the car at the back in 46th.
In a complete contrast to the rain of Silverstone in the last round, the notoriously changeable conditions of the Germanic mountains were absent and consistency was the word of the day – for the weather and the Sebah team’s GT2 victory that clinched the championship title with one event still remaining. The championship lead in LMP2 was taken by Chamberlain-Synergy with Berridge, Owen & Evans struggling with brake and fuel system problems and corssing the line fifth, earning valuable points to inch them to the top of the table.
Contributing to Sebah’s win today was a new tyre making its race debut. Dunlop designer Firdos Avari explains “It has been quite hard .We’ve changed all GT2 tyres every stint. We’ve just found that the Porsche were slower than the Ferrari but we won through consistency. We introduced a new construction for Sebah on the rear because we have had some feedback about the cars being nervous through the corners – a bit loose on the mid-cormer at the back.
This is the first time the car’s been on this tyre and it’s never been in a race situation although it’s had some successful tests. What better way to make a race debut than to win a race and secure a championship!
