The beautiful Aston Martin LMP1 entered by Kronos Racing in cooperationwith the team Marc VDS participated last Sunday, as scheduled, to theofficial Test Day ahead of the Le Mans 24 Hours. Maxime Martin haspassed with no problems the mandatory « rookie test », the first objectiveof the all-Belgian team.
Once the track dried after the early morning storms, Vanina Ickx, who knows the carfor having raced with it last year, took the task of doing an installation lap, beforeleaving the wheel to Maxime Martin, who had to perform the ten timed lapsmandatory for every rookie before being accepted to take the start in the June race.Maxime performed the task in three runs, spaced by the mid-day break and a safetycarperiod at the beginning of the afternoon.
The young Belgian did extremely well in his first appearance on the 24-hours circuitand at the wheel of a LMP1 car, constantly improving his lap times and taking norisks at all. After 15 laps, he was 11th in the time sheets, demonstrating greatadaptation skills. Unfortunately, shortly after that, the test day was over for theBelgian squad, following the detection of a small leak in the fuel tank. For obvioussafety reasons, the Aston Martin # 22 was brought back to the pits, preventingVanina Ickx and Bas Leinders to do more mileage.
"It was a fantastic experience", commented an elated Martin. "The 24-hours track isfast and not wide, but the car has a lot of downforce and impressive braking. It tookme a little while to adjust before finding the right pace, and was very cautious intraffic, in order to avoid any problem in the middle of cars running at very differentspeeds. The idea of taking to the 24 Hours with such a competitive car looks still likea dream to me..."
A dream that will become reality if the status of first reserve becomes a confirmedentry, something that entails the withdrawal of one single entry in either LMPclasses. According to ACO sources, this could still take a couple of weeks, and thedefinitive confirmation could happen just after the 1000 Km of Spa../..
