LEADS THE WAY IN LMP1 AND TAKES POINTS IN GT2
Jean-Marc Gounon in the no. 12 Courage led what was an eventful race in dominant style yesterday.
A major Eau Rouge first lap accident led to a red flag. From third at the restart, Gounon surged into the lead on the opening lap. He stayed there, pulling out a lead on the pack, including through the first round of pit stops. Leading until lap 44, when he lost out to a faster paced Pescarolo, he took the opportunity to pit for the second time and the driver change was made. Alex Frei took over at the wheel but disaster struck when an electrics problem caused the car to stop at the top of the pit lane and bring a premature end to its race.
The Courage Competition sister car no 13 also had an early finish. Haruki Kurosawa was driving in sixth position, having moved up from ninth, when he had a spin. The Courage was then struck by a GT2 car damaging the rear too badly for the car to be repaired in time to rejoin the race.
GT2 runners Seikel Motorsport fared better, finishing seventh in what is the most competitive class of the event with 18 runners. The team claimed its first scoring finish of the season with two points to start their championship tally.
Jean-Marc Gounon, No. 12 Courage Competition “When I stopped the car was perfect. I did two minutes eight seconds on my penultimate lap – which is only two seconds off the fastest race lap. I’m happy with the Yokohamas. We came here with a totally different tyre and it’s working well.”
Tim Bergmeister, Seikel Motorsport “The race has gone OK. We had no problems and seventh is not bad. Qualifying was definitely the highlight of my weekend though.”
Akira Shiraishi, Yokohama Motorsport “I think that our teams have performed better than the results show. To be leading the race for over 40 laps in LMP1 and to have qualified in second in GT2 shows that it won’t be too long before a Yokohama team is back on the podium. I’m very pleased that Courage Competition and Seikel Motorsport are so happy with the progress that we are making with the Yokohama ADVAN tyres and we are committed to continuing this to make sure that together we get results.”
