JOTA Sport gets ELMS title bid off to good start at Silverstone

JOTA Sport launched its European Le Mans Series title bid in style yesterday (11 Apr) by finishing a very close second in a dramatic 4 Hours of Silverstone. Simon Dolan, Filipe Albuquerque and Harry Tincknell brought their Gibson 015S Nissan home less than one second behind the winning car in the action-packed 433-mile ELMS “opener”. Albuquerque started the Dunlop-shod Gibson from the front row on the 31-car grid after Tincknell had set the second fastest time in qualifying earlier in the day around the 3.667-mile Silverstone “Grand Prix” circuit in Northamptonshire.The Portuguese “factory” Audi Sport driver moved into the lead with less than 30mins gone and handed over the Gibson to Dolan an hour later after a solid double “stint”. With the first driver change pit-stops completed Simon lay second – Dolan superbly consolidating the position following a Safety Car phase with 68mins to run. Dolan, matching the pace of far more experienced drivers, pitted with 44mins remaining, “works” Nissan NISMO driver Tincknell resuming third – less than 2secs behind the leader – with Harry immediately setting the race’s fastest lap.Tincknell on a mission, lost no time in challenging the second-placed Gibson, Harry doing well to stay on the track when his rival made contact with the JOTA sportscar pushing Tincknell wide. With 20mins remaining, just seven seconds covered the top-three. Harry snatched second-place with less than 15mins to go and closed in to within 3secs of the leader but moments later Tincknell, lost momentum when slowed by a GT class car, was squeezed tight over the kerbs after further contact with the rival Gibson car at Becketts Corner, spun and continued in third place.The drama intensified when the lead two cars touched promoting Tincknell to second place – Harry taking the chequered flag just 0.370secs behind the similar Gibson for a hard earned second place. Dolan, Albuquerque and Tincknell will head to the second round in Italy next month (17 May) hoping for a repeat performance at Imola. JOTA started from pole-position, won and set the race’s fastest lap 12 months ago.


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