Jota Sport remains second in European Le Mans Series

JOTA Sport remains second in the European Le Mans Series after placing second in the third round at the Red Bull Ring in Austria today (20 July).

A little over a month after the British team won the LM P2 class in the Le Mans 24 Hours, JOTA recorded its second top-three LM P2 finish of the season.

Simon Dolan, Harry Tincknell and Filipe Albuquerque (pictured above left to right) finished 12.385 seconds behind the winning car in the four-hour Austrian race staged on the fast and undulating 2.688-mile circuit and in hot and humid weather conditions.

The Dunlop-shod Zytek clocked up 160-laps at an average speed of 107.31mph leaving Dolan/Tincknell/Albuquerque and JOTA Sport just four-points adrift of the lead in the Driver’s and Teams’ standings.

Albuquerque started the race from pole-position on the 33-car grid – eight cars contesting the LM P2 category – after Tincknell had set the fastest qualifying time earlier in the day, eclipsing the opposition by a significant 0.483secs, to keep JOTA Sport’s 100% 2014 ELMS “pole” record intact and bettering the team’s 2013 pole time by 0.793secs.

The Portuguese led throughout his near 50mins stint and despite a brief Safety Car period and losing further time behind a LMP2 backmarker, Albuquerque handed over the JOTA Zytek to Dolan with an 8.168secs lead.

Simon resumed in second place behind the #34 Oreca after the opening pit-stop phase – the Oreca having only taken on fuel at its pit-stop – but the Monaco-based British businessman impressively hunted down the Oreca and swept  into the lead with 80mins gone.

Leader Dolan stopped for fuel on 100mins resuming second, on the tail of the now leading #36 Alpine, Simon remaining in its wheel tracks until the #36 pitted three laps before Dolan himself stopped with 92mins remaining.

Tincknell resumed second, seven seconds behind the leading #36, Harry setting a series of personal fastest laps before the young Briton swept ahead with just less than an hour to run.

Dolan was back in the Zytek with 44mins to go, heading back on track just ahead of the #36 Oreca but lost the lead on the next lap – Dolan making contact with his rival and losing a front aerodynamic “winglet” in an attempt to re-take the lead.

The penultimate round of the ELMS is staged at Paul Ricard in Southern France on 14 September.

Simon Dolan (GB). Age 45. Born: Chelmsford, Essex. Lives: Monaco (MC): “Today’s stints in the car were some of the toughest of my career and physically demanding. It was full on all of the time with no let up right until the chequered flag and run in pretty hot conditions throughout. I lightly clipped the car of eventual winner Ollie Webb in my last stint trying to regain the lead which knocked off the front left ‘dive plane’ which meant I was powerless to try to overtake again. I don’t honestly think it changed anything, maybe it would have been a little closer at the finish.”

Harry Tincknell (GB). Age: 22. Born: Exeter, Devon. Lives: Sidmouth, Devon (GB): “Second place is one position back from where we wanted to be but in terms of the championship, we’re now only four points behind the leaders, so we have to be relatively happy with a pole and runners-up placing. My stint went well – I was pushing to the maximum from start to finish. I came out in second, hunted down and overtook the leader, and opened up a gap before handing the car back to Simon. Overtaking around here is not the easiest.”      

Filipe Albuquerque (P). Age 29. Born & Lives: Coimbra (P): “Although we’d love to win every race, this doesn’t happen in life, but we can be content with second place today and we’re now in the fight more than ever for the title. I made a good start but a Safety Car then wiped out my advantage although I was able to pull out a good gap after that. The Zytek was fantastic for my opening stint – it had good speed like at Silverstone and Imola. Even now I’m looking forward so much for our next race at Paul Ricard.”

Sam Hignett. Partner, JOTA Group: “It was great to carry our Le Mans momentum on to here with a second consecutive ELMS podium and importantly a good points haul towards our championship title assault.

“I’m very pleased with today’s result. All three drivers and the entire team did a great job in difficult conditions. Since winning LM P2 at Le Mans, we took the Zytek to Goodwood’s Festival of Speed, then cleaned and re-vinyled the same

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