The team finished the sixth race of the FIA WEC season in positions 2 and 3 of the LMP2 category.
After free practice to prepare the cars and tires to face the heat of Texas, the qualifying session ended up with encouraging P2 for the #13 and P4 for the #31.
It is noon in Austin, it is under 34 degrees that the 6 Hours of COTA started. From the first minutes, the #31 is aggressive and reached P3 with Bruno Senna at the wheel. After 45 minutes, the first changes took place and Nelson Piquet Jr and Julien Canal entered the track and again 45 minutes later David Heinemeier Hansson and Nicolas Prost. There followed a chain of relays to allow the drivers to face the very difficult weather conditions. Seven changes per car have been realized by the technical teams to lose as little time as possible.
This race was played from beginning to end between the two Oreca 07 Vaillante REBELLION, Signatech Alpine Matmut #36 and Jackie Chan DC Racing #37 and #38. The Safety car has greatly reduced the gap in a race where every second counts.
Finally, the regularity of the drivers and the quality relays allow both Oreca 07 #13 and #31 to move to positions 2 and 3 at the end of the fourth hour. A last 45-minute relay of the checkered flag will not change the ranking of the cars and Nelson Piquet Jr and Nicolas Prost passed the finish line in P2 and P3 of the LMP2 category.
Next meeting in Fuji (Japan) on October 15th!
Bart Hayden, team manager:
“Very happy with this new podium. It's really good to make our performance with a beautiful podium! Starting forward was clearly an advantage. After our performance at Le Mans, it is a pleasure to be able to give the mechanics and the technical team of the #13 a new impetus. The car was really perfect. We must continue to work on the details that will allow us to gain victory! Congratulations also to the #31 for their podium and to the Alpine for their victory.”
Mathias Beche, #13 driver:
“Very happy with this new podium. It's really good to make our performance with a beautiful podium! Starting forward was clearly an advantage. After our performance at Le Mans, it is a pleasure to be able to give the mechanics and the technical team of the #13 a new impetus. The car was really perfect. We must continue to work on the details that will allow us to gain victory! Congratulations also to the #31 for their podium and to the Alpine for their victory.”