European Le Mans
CRS Racing race report
Paul Ricard HTTT
Edited: Jun 1, 2018, 12:52 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
FOURTH IN FRANCE
The 2011 Le Mans Series roared into action at Paul Ricard in France yesterday. CRS drivers Klaas Hummel, Adam Christodoulou and Phil Quaife finished in fourth place after leading the GTE-Am class for the majority of the six-hour race.
The start really was chaos.
Adam Christodoulou
The beginning of the race was too lively for most when the entire pack was thrown into confusion during the rolling start. As the cars came around for the start the safety car stayed on track but the lights went green. The net result of this was that all the LMP cars at the front stayed at low speed, as they could see the safety car, but all the GT cars could see green lights so they put pedal to the medal thinking the race was on.
Adam Christodoulou who had started from fifth place in the GTE-Am Class for CRS managed to avoid the crashing cars and as soon as the race really got going he made fantastic progress through the pack.
"The start really was chaos," said Christodoulou. "I had to go straight through the middle and do some serious debris dodging! Once the race got going I found I had little grip but as the fuel burnt away it all got better and I found myself in third place, battling for second. I got up to second and then when I came in for my stop, the guys really nailed it and we double-stinted the tyres so that took me into the lead. The engineers gave us a great strategy today. It's a shame we had the starter problems but it's good to get the first race done so we know where we stand on pace so I'm now looking forward to Spa."
Hats off to the guys who have all worked hard this weekend to give us a car we can race with.
Phil Quaife
The starter problem occurred at the end of Phil Quaife's first stint. Like Christodoulou, Quaife had a great run and built on the lead but when he tried to leave the pits after his first stop the starter didn't work. The team got him out but the problem happened again at the next stop, losing precious time.
"When I got in the car I pushed as hard as I could to lengthen the lead so we had a comfortable gap to hand over to Klaas," said Quaife. "We struggled a bit with our entry speed into the corners but overall the car was good so hats off to the guys who have all worked hard this weekend to give us a car we can race with."
Klaas Hummel was the last man to jump into the No.82 Ferrari. As a non-professional driver, this is the highest level Klaas has competed at. He is on a steep learning curve so it's a good job he's such a very fast learner!
"That was a fantastic race; I really enjoyed it a lot," said Hummel. "I am on a learning curve and I learned more than ever today about lines and corners so it feels good to make progress. I was in the car for over an hour and a half, which is the longest run I have ever done in a race. The car felt good; it was very well balanced and good to drive, so it was a real shame that we lost time with the starter problem and an off that I had during my run. I think we could have gained a place without all that."
-source: crs
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article JMW Motorsport race report
Next article RML race report
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Adam Christodoulou
Christodoulou felt "a bit robbed" after Nurburgring defeat
Endurance
Endurance
24 Hours of Nürburgring
Christodoulou felt "a bit robbed" after Nurburgring defeat
Mercedes names line-up for Nurburgring 24 Hours title defence
Endurance
Endurance
24 Hours of Nürburgring
Mercedes names line-up for Nurburgring 24 Hours title defence
Mercedes-AMG ready for debut at The Roar Before the Rolex 24
IMSA
IMSA
Daytona January testing
Mercedes-AMG ready for debut at The Roar Before the Rolex 24
Latest news
When Can-Am made its controversial comeback
General
When Can-Am made its controversial comeback
Yamaha boss on MotoGP changes under Liberty: 'We must be careful not to lose our fans'
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Japanese GP
2 h
Yamaha boss on MotoGP changes under Liberty: 'We must be careful not to lose our fans'
Kyle Busch remembered: Rowdy’s most notable Phoenix moments
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
3 h
Kyle Busch remembered: Rowdy’s most notable Phoenix moments
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe