OAK Racing made an excellent start to their 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship campaign at the 6 Hours of Silverstone today by finishing second and fourth in the LM P2 class, while the teams non-WEC entry was eighth.
Olivier Pla, Alex Brundle and David Heinemeier Hansson overcame changeable weather conditions throughout the race to bring the #24 Morgan-Nissan LM P2 home second behind Delta-ADR.
The French squads #35 sister car driven by Bertrand Baguette, Martin Plowman and Ricardo Gonzalez had also looked like a podium candidate for much of the race but was ultimately denied by a starter motor issue during one of its pit-stops. The five minutes lost would prove costly late in the race when fading tyres rendered Plowman helpless to hold on to third. Having originally finished fifth on the road the trio were later promoted a place following a post-race penalty for the #41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek-Nissan.
Meanwhile two punctures and a gearbox problem hindered the efforts of team owner/driver Jacques Nicolet and Jean-Marc Merlin as the pair battled to finish eighth in class.
Sbastien Philippe, OAK Racing Team Principal: Its been a good start to the year but we are a little bitfrustrated with the overall performance. The #24 car had a good race and the result probably matches ourperformance. Delta-ADR were that little bit quicker today and they deserved to win. All three cars struggledwith front tyre degradation so we know there is more to come. With #35 we had to take a big risk strategywiseafter the starter motor problem, which nearly paid off. Without losing those five minutes it would havecomfortably been on the podium. Meanwhile the #45s gearbox issue was another example of our frustratingday. Fortunately we know the car has good pace so well look to rectify those small areas that cost us beforeSpa.
David Heinemeier Hansson, #24 Morgan-Nissan LM P2: Its great to start the season with such a strongresult and score decent points for the championship. Well need to refine our set-up for Spa as I didnt feelwe could fight as hard as we might have, so with that in mind were very happy with a podium today. I actuallyfinished fourth in this car on my WEC debut at Spa last season so if we can make some progress between nowand then we should be in good shape to fight for victory again.
Ricardo Gonzalez, #35 Morgan-Nissan LM P2: Strategy-wise we had some bad luck with the weather whenit began to rain just at the wrong moment, which meant we missed the window for wet tyres. But in truth itwas the starter motor problem that cost us a podium today. The car had good pace but was a little bit nervousat the rear, which is something well need to work on for the next race.
Jacques Nicolet, Team Owner/driver of #45 Morgan-Nissan LM P2: I felt great in the car, which had goodpace and gave me a lot of pleasure to drive. Having to stop for 30 minutes due to a gearbox problem obviouslywasnt ideal but I prefer to focus on the positives like Jean-Marcs debut in LM P2. He was professional, madeno mistakes and didnt risk the car, but managed to progressively increase his speed, which is very importantfor his development. It gives us a lot of confidence for the next race. So overall I am happy with how theweekend worked out, especially as there was only two of us to share the driving.
Onroak Automotives fourth Morgan LM P2 also showed promise in the hands of Chinese customer teamKCMG who came home sixth on their competitive sports-prototype debut.
Round two of the FIA WEC comes from the historic Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium on May 3/4.
