The LM P2 ORECA chassis comfortably lead at quarter-race distance!
At quarter mark of this 84th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the ORECA chassis are in control of the battle in the LM P2 class. Six hours in and the ORECA 05 and Alpine A460 which have been in the lead since the start, have proved to be highly competitive, now occupying all first five places. With Beche/Hirakawa/Thiriet’s No. 46, Thiriet by TDS Racing is in front of Signatech-Alpine and Lapierre/Menezes/Richelmi’s No .36, followed by KCMG’s No. 47 with Bradley/Howson/Matsuda at the wheel. Having started from the pole, G-Drive Racing and Rast/Rusinov/Stevens are very near behind. For their debut in La Sarthe, Manor has led the race for a while and currently ranks 5th with Merhi/Rao/Graves’s No. 44.
What they’ve said.
“At the beginning of the race we had to make decisions about tyres considering the track” Roberto Merhi explains (No. 44 ORECA 05/Manor). “The first stint was tough because we were lacking grip. Once we changed the tyres I got the grip I needed and the car worked well, I was able to do my best and moved up in the rankings. It’s only the beginning but it’s already very satisfying. Now our goal is to keep going this way and to maintain ourselves in first position.”
“The weather has played tricks on us” Nicolas Lapierre confides (No. 36 Alpine A460/Signatech-Alpine). “We’ve kept wet tyres on for too long before opting for intermediate tyres in order to anticipate rain coming back again, then we finally went back into the pits to change for slicks. That has cost us more than a minute, but then we went back onto the track with a good pace to catch up. The car behaves very well so far. If the weather remains dry, it should work in our favour.”
“The conditions were quite good in the end, we started from the ninth place and went back up to the third position” Richard Bradley says (No. 47 ORECA 05/KCMG). “It’s good to start the race with such a performance. We know that it will be long and difficult but we have what it takes to do well and show that we are competitive. The car is terrific. The tyres are different from last year, so we have to get used to them, but all lights are green!”
The race so far.
At 3pm, considering it was pouring rain, the race kick-started under the safety car which stayed on track for over fifty minutes. As the green flag was waved, G-Drive Racing’s ORECA 05 maintained itself in pole position: René Rast was leading, followed by Nelson Panciatici’s and Nicolas Lapierre’s Alpine A460, as well as Roberto Merhi just in between. On board Manor’s ORECA 05, the Spanish driver kept control after refueling twice. On a track that had now turned dry, he took over Thiriet by TDS Racing’s ORECA 05, driven by Mathias Bèche, while G-Drive Racing and KCMG were not far behind at all, 5th and 6th rows. The 2nd and 3rd hours of the race were completed at a fast pace and Nicolas Lapierre, at the wheel of No. 36 Alpine, pushed hard to come back from the 12th to the 3rd place!
After a first-class quintuple stint, Roberto Merhi handed off the wheel to Matt Rao, more than minute ahead of their rivals! Five hours in and five ORECA chassis occupied the first five places with Manor followed by Thiriet by TDS Racing, KCMG, the No. 36 Alpine and G-Drive Racing – though their car had to recover from a slow puncture.
The pace did not slow down and as the drivers replaced one another, the rankings evolved. Thiriet by TDS Racing’s ORECA 05 and Signatech-Alpine’s No. 36 Alpine, driven by Ryo Hirakawa and Gustavo Menezes respectively, kept swapping around in the lead, while Matt Rao swung around during the fifth hour, losing about fifty seconds with the No. 44 ORECA 05.
During the sixth hour Hirakawa widened the gap with his runner-up who ended up racing over a minute behind him. Delivering a strong and flawless performance, KCMG completed the leading trio in front of Manor, while G-Drive Racing had to serve a drive-through penalty because of a pit infraction. The second Alpine A460 was within the Top 10. As for Eurasia Motorsport, after a pit stop during the first hour, the Pu Jun-Jin/Gommendy/De Bruijn’s No. 33 has come back to the twelfth place.