Monza: Vincent Vosse race report

Excellent podium for Vincent Vosse, Sebastien Dumez and Jean-Luc Blanchemain in GT1

Vincent Vosse and the entire Luc Alphand Aventures team are definitely not going to forget this inaugural round of the Le Mans Series 2007 weekend. On Friday events started off with a dramatic fire in the pitlane, and on Sunday it finished off with the two teams on the podium in the GT1 class. Enough said!

Even though the cause of the fire on Friday in the Luc Alphand Aventures pits is still unknown, the results were harsh, with two mechanics badly burned. "The whole team was in shock ", Luc Alphand explained."But on Saturday morning reports from the hospital were positive, and everyone decided to carry on the weekend. Concentration was back on full power, and as from that moment everything clicked ." To such an extent that the two Corvettes clinched 2nd and 6th times in the GT1 class, ready to swallow up this 1000 Km race.

"On Friday we had experienced under steer and a gearbox problem, which seemed a bit long to us ", Vincent Vosse commented."But seeing the reduced number of mechanics after the fire, we carried on like that, and finally everything worked fine. Over one lap out Corvette C5-R was as fast as the Larbre Aston Martin, and in fact over a period of one relay I reckon that we could even have taken the advantage." This was confirmed during the race, with perfect relays performed by the 3 C5-R drivers. "I must really pay tribute to my team mates Dumez and Blanchemain, who drove perfect and fast stints ", Vosse continued, "which quickly allowed us to be up in 3rd spot in the class. During my last stint I had Antonio Garcia breathing down my neck, and I really had to attack to stay within the top 3. A few laps from the finish the team asked me to reduce the rhythm. I think I ended the race with just one litre of fuel, not more than that. "

In bringing his two Corvettes into 1st and 3rd in the GT1 hierarchy, the Luc Alphand Aventures team finished off the weekend superbly, and as such paying a great tribute to the mechanics who were injured on Friday "We had a bit of trouble keeping to the rhythm of the first two, seeing we had a delayed refuelling strategy, whereas our fuel consumption was higher than expected" Vincent continued. "But OK, this podium is really quite exceptional, and I want to dedicate it to our two unfortunate mechanics, one named Eric Kaiser, and from Verviers in Belgium, just like me. The good news is that he will be leaving hospital this week. This unfortunate incident has proven the strength of character and reaction of the Luc Alphand team, that was able to face up to the situation and still go on to produce a brilliant double result."

And the final word we are leaving to Luc Alphand, who was a truly happy man this Sunday evening . "With Sebastien and Vincent, and not forgetting Jean-Luc, in the second Corvette, we can expect some pretty amazing results this season. This is a homogenous trio, and their experience has already made all the difference here in Monza. For my last relay I left some 80 meters behind Vincent, and I finished some 100 meters back. He's still as fast as ever, and it's a great omen for the rest of the season and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. As for the difference in performance between the Corvette C5-R et C6.R, this can be explained away by a new mapping straight from the United States, allowing the more up-to-date of the two to be faster here. But at least we know that we can perform up front with these two cars, and that's what counts ."

Credit: vv