WEC
Creation Autosportif Thursday qualifying report
BEST OF BRITISH FOR LE MANS In perfect weather conditions -- a great contrast to last night -- an all-out fight for the glory of pole position took place today for the 74th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The British Creation team knew ...
Published: Jun 18, 2006, 10:57 AM
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BEST OF BRITISH FOR LE MANS
In perfect weather conditions -- a great contrast to last night -- an all-out fight for the glory of pole position took place today for the 74th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The British Creation team knew from the start they were not going to be in a position to challenge the might of Audi and Pescarolo for pole position, but hoped to imitate their Wednesday grid position of 5th on the grid.
The electric blue Creation CA06/H, driven by Jamie Campbell-Walter, recorded a fastest time of 3:36.459 in the opening minutes of the second two-hour session on his first set of Michelin hard race tyres, placing it in 7th place on the grid, the highest placing for a British team.
There was disappointment that a quicker time was not possible and Campbell-Walter explained what had happened. "I did two laps in the 3:36s and, when I set the first one, the only clear lap I had was the 4th on that set of tyres so I'd lost the best from the tyres. On my second attempt, I had a good lap but it felt a bit different - the car felt like it had more understeer. I'm sure we could do a high 3:34 but not today."
Both Beppe Gabbiani and Felipe Ortiz completed more laps today, giving them valuable track time to prepare for the race on Saturday. Michael Jankowski said of the Italian and Swiss Bolivian drivers after the session, "With lap times dropping every time the drivers went out, it's looking very good for the race. It reinforces our position for a top five finish in my view."
While disappointed not to have been able to achieve a higher placing, Team Principal Ian Bickerton was nevertheless warm in his praise of his drivers. "Jamie has done a really good job. He hasn't had a lot of time in the car this year and it's all been in testing and maybe ten laps at the end of the day. He's come into the team here with very few laps under his belt, had to get into a car that he doesn't really know that well, and drive on a circuit he's only driven on a very few times before. We put him under immense pressure to perform and he's nearly done it. We gave time to Beppe and Felipe as, again, their time at Le Mans is quite limited.
"I think we are punching above our weight against Pescarolo and Audi and I feel quite good about that because that's what Creation do and we do it well. Not a bad day."
-www.creationsport.com
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