“Hi everyone, I’m currently sat in the car with my dad returning back home to Spain after an incredible weekend with the Ligier euro series second heat at Le Mans 24H circuit.
It was a very intense meeting as the schedule was shortened for the centenary event to practice, qualy and 1 race heat all in 1 day
The first thing that hits me at the circuit was the amount of cars, teams, hospitality suites and shopping areas all within this massive circuit.
There are even teams that have their own hotels built within the paddock . Even the surrounding villages are flying checkered flags and bunting lines the streets.
It’s truly an amazing atmosphere.
We managed to do a track walk on Saturday afternoon which is when I realized how big the track really is.
From the Porsche curves at the end of the lap running through the Ford chicane (which has a huge red sausage curb) running on up to Dunlop chicane then going under the Dunlop bridge is an amazing feeling as you see all of the grandstands full of fans watching the action. The ridiculously long straights seem to go on forever and we are absolutely flat out before the mulsanne chicanes and then the mulsanne corner, which is a tricky braking zone leading into a 90 right, and finally the Indianapolis corner which is another difficult corner to keep clean on exit due to gravel.”
Practice
“So finally the big day was here and it’s a very early Sunday morning, Simon is out in the car first for his stint in Free practice, and he drove good steady laps building the speed up and getting comfortable with both the car and the circuit.
As you can imagine I was very excited for my turn to get my first real drive around the circuit after all the preparation and hard work.
I felt rewarded as soon as I left the pit lane, the car felt fantastic, and I was able to set purple sectors from my first lap. The session was cut short by about 5 or 6 minutes due to a red flag from another driver crashing but I had done enough to set 4:25.6 beating my nearest rival by almost 2 seconds.”
Qualifying
“Onto qualifying… the team decided that the best strategy most likely was that I would do qualifying. Which would also mean I would be starting the race. As there had been very few safety cars in previous races here, we felt that this could work for us and our aim was to get out and create a big gap before our driver swap and pit stop. After being as fast as we were in practice we decided to save the new tyre for the race and run qualifying on the used set.
Once again I was really happy with how the car felt which gave me the confidence to push hard and again dominate the session setting purple sectors throughout the session. I improved on my practice time by around 3 seconds setting a fastest lap of a 4:22.45 achieving pole position on my first time there!!! Our closest rival, ( last years vice champion ) set his time 1.7 seconds slower. I was absolutely thrilled to have got my second pole position ( back to back ) in the championship and my confidence was high getting ready for the race.”
Race
“Rolling out of the pit lane for the start of formation lap was an amazing feeling and I was very focused and feeling confident we could do well. We had the new tyre fitted and I was concentrating on getting the tyre and brakes up to temperature in the formation lap. The lap took forever or felt like it anyway!!
And as we rolled through the Porsche curves everything was good and I felt ready, the last corner the safety car peeled off and the grid increased speed up the start straight waiting for the lights to go out.
I got a great start, nice and clean and got my head down trying to keep up with the JSP4 in front. As the first lap went by we realized we were opening a gap and everything was going to plan. The car felt amazing, the best it’s ever felt and I was able to push very hard and extend my lead with every sector.
I think I got to about 15 seconds clear of 2nd place and was really enjoying my race, i was getting faster with each lap and I managed to set the fastest lap of the race in that first stint, purple sectors 1,2 and 3 giving me a 4:22.5 fastest lap.
I think I got to about 15 seconds clear of 2nd place and was really enjoying my race, i was getting faster with each lap and I managed to set the fastest lap of the race in that first stint, purple sectors 1,2 and 3 giving me a 4:22.5 fastest lap.
It was then the worst thing that could have happened to us happened, and another competitor crashed which brought out a full safety car!!! This completely destroyed our strategy as it meant my lead was reduced to nothing as the pack all closed up behind the safety car.
It was decided as that as the driver swap/ pit window was now open that we should pit now trying to take some advantage of the safety car….. Unfortunately everybody else did exactly the same thing and despite a good driver swap the pit lane was mayhem and very confusing. Unfortunately Simon was boxed in by the pitting car in front which delayed his exit and losing us many places. During the final 20 minutes there was several waved yellow flags/ slow zones which hampered and restricted Simon from being able to push his hardest and reclaim the lost positions.
Of course we were all disappointed that we didn’t quite make the podium, but very pleased that we had been able to show our great speed.”
“Congratulations to the winning team but rest assured I will be back !!
A massive thanks to the team and our sponsors for making this such a memorable event I can’t wait to be back next year.
Max.”
