European Le Mans
Nissan Ready To Roll At Ricard
Nissan Motorsport press release
Edited: Jun 1, 2018, 1:43 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The new European Le Mans Series season gets underway this weekend at Paul Ricard in the south of France. Nissan driver, Lucas Ordonez, makes his debut for the championship-winning Greaves Motorsport team, alongside Alex Brundle and Tom Kimber-Smith.
Tom Kimber-Smith, Lucas Ordonez and Alex Brundle
Photo by: DPPI
The LMP2 category is the premier class in the 2012 European Le Mans Series so the race is on for the overall series title. With seven teams running with Nissan power and stiff competition coming from five further LMP2 teams, the scene is set for some hard fought racing.
“ELMS is going to be a very competitive championship this year,” said Lucas. “There will be a big grid of LMP2 cars fighting for the victory but I think we have a strong line-up at Greaves Motorsport. The team are the current champions so there is no other objective than to win. Tom (Kimber-Smith) is a fast, experienced driver, Alex (Brundle) is a young, fast single-seater racer and I now have a full year of LMP2 experience so I think we have a good chance. I have had the opportunity to spend time with my new team now and I feel very much at home here. I’m delighted to be with them for ELMS and of course for the Le Mans 24 Hours.”
“We had a good pre-season test at Paul Ricard a couple of weeks ago,” continued Lucas. “I raced the Oreca-Nissan last year and now I am in the Zytek-Nissan so it has been interesting for me to compare the handling of the two cars. The Greaves car feels good though and I’m excited to see how we get on at the first race. I am sure we have a good season ahead of us.”
The other new addition to the Greaves driving squad this year is Alex Brundle who is racing in the ELMS alongside a GP3 single-seater programme.
“All of the team at Nissan and at Greaves Motorsport have been great,” said Alex. “I immediately felt comfortable in the team and we have a really good working relationship already. I have total faith in my team-mates for this year. Tom needs no introduction. He is the benchmark in the series. I look forward to gaining from his experience of sportscar racing. I have heard Lucas’ previous team mates expressing positive surprise about his performance and it is clear that he has had to give his all over the last few years. At the Ricard test he surpassed my expectations; he’s the real deal!”
“As for my own performance at the test I am pretty happy,” he explained. “I was able to mix it at top of the time sheets against some big names in all my runs and deliver a time good enough for P2 at the conclusion of the test in the afternoon of day two. I still think I can move forward a lot though and it’s great to have the potential to improve. I still need to learn but it’s coming quickly and that’s good.”
“With LMP2 being the top class in the European Le Mans Series this year it is important for us to get a good result in this championship,” commented Darren Cox, General Manager, Nissan in Europe. “We've placed Lucas with the Greaves team to continue his development programme and put him in a position where he can go for an outright championship win. The fact that there are six further customer teams running with Nissan power in ELMS is the best illustration of the strength and success of our engine.”
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 Series ready for 6 Hours at Le Castellet
Next article AF Corse heads to 6 Hours at Le Castellet
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Alex Brundle
Alex Brundle explains Japanese GP energy tweak and its major impact on drivers
Formula 1
Formula 1
Japanese GP
Alex Brundle explains Japanese GP energy tweak and its major impact on drivers
Why Brundle Motorsport retired GT40 at Spa Six Hours after "valiant" stint from Martin Brundle
Formula 1
Formula 1
Why Brundle Motorsport retired GT40 at Spa Six Hours after "valiant" stint from Martin Brundle
Brundle signs two-year WEC deal with Inter Europol
WEC
WEC
Brundle signs two-year WEC deal with Inter Europol
More from
Greaves Motorsport
Greaves Motorsport takes top six spot at 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours
WEC
WEC
24 Hours of Le Mans
Greaves Motorsport takes top six spot at 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours
Le Mans 24 Hours team-by-team preview, Part 2 - LMP2
WEC
WEC
24 Hours of Le Mans
Le Mans 24 Hours team-by-team preview, Part 2 - LMP2
A remarkable 41 Nissan-powered prototypes set to test
European Le Mans
European Le Mans
A remarkable 41 Nissan-powered prototypes set to test
Latest news
F1 Mexico GP: Charles Leclerc beats Kimi Antonelli to top FP1
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Mexican GP
1 h
F1 Mexico GP: Charles Leclerc beats Kimi Antonelli to top FP1
What Fernando Alonso is getting wrong about F1 driving standards
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Mexican GP
2 h
What Fernando Alonso is getting wrong about F1 driving standards
F1 Mexico GP: Follow FP1 with live timing
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Mexican GP
2 h
F1 Mexico GP: Follow FP1 with live timing
Sergio Perez to skip F1 Mexico GP fan forum due to illness
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Mexican GP
3 h
Sergio Perez to skip F1 Mexico GP fan forum due to illness
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