Montoya beats himself up over Le Mans shunt
Racing superstar Juan Pablo Montoya quipped he “ran out of talent” when he went off and nerfed the tyrewall on his first experience of the Le Mans 24 Hours.
Juan Pablo Montoya, United Autosports, with wife Connie
Nikolaz Godet
The two-time Indy 500 winner and seven-time Formula 1 grand prix victor went off at the infamous Indianapolis corner, nosing his United Autosports Ligier JS P217 into the tyrewall.
Montoya had to sit and wait in the car to be extracted from the gravel trap, losing a huge amount of times to his LMP2 class rivals.
“I made a mistake and I ran wide at Indianapolis, just understeered off,” he admitted. “It was really close, and just got on the brakes and locked them up and ran out of talent.”
United Autosports team boss Richard Dean said there was almost no damage to the car, despite a tweaked nose.
“I think he just locked up and went straight on, that’s what he said on the radio,” said Dean. “He was pretty annoyed with himself.
“He damaged the nose, it was a quick change. We lost the time getting him out of the wall. Pace was quite good, right on target.
“We had some niggly problems early that cost us a lap, but it’s not the worst thing in the world.”
The #32 car rejoined with Hugo de Sadeleer at the wheel, and now runs 17th overall, 12th in class and two laps off the LMP2 lead.
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