Chandhok to try luck at Le Mans LMP1, qualifies 11th
Le Mans (France) 14 June 2012: Indian racing driver Karun Chandhok completed his first qualifying session at the historic Le Mans 24 hours as his team JRM Racing set a time of 3:37.088, 11th quickest in the overall classification. JRM makes the step up to Le Mans after its FIA GT1 World Championship title victory last year. The trio of David Brabham, Peter Dumbreck and Karun Chandhok will use the Honda HPD ARX-03a to contest the LMP1 category alongside works and privateer outfits.
Earlier in the day, Brabham opened running in the practice session for JRM with three runs in the first 90 minutes. The Le Mans 2009 winner recorded the team’s best time of 3:34.641, 10th in the overall classification. Brabham then handed over to Chandhok, but the Indian reported some instability on the rear of the car on his second run and returned to the pits for checks before Brabham got back in the car to compare set-ups with the beginning of the session. The Australian then handed over to Dumbreck. In the second qualifying Dumbreck was first out in the car, completing four timed laps with his – and the team’s overall – best time of 3:37.088. Chandhok, who will become the first-ever Indian to compete in the Le Mans 24 Hours this weekend, then posted three timed laps before Brabham rounded off the day.
Chandhok was happy to get more time in the car, especially as he had never driven in the dark at the historic Le Mans circuit. He commented, “Today was about getting more time in the car and fine tuning the balance. We’re still very new round here, both myself and the team, so the learning curve is very steep. We’ve made a lot of changes as we’ve understood more about the tyre warm up and performance, plus the behaviour of the new aero package. It’s been a fairly tough day as the grip is low and temperatures have changed throughout the sessions but we are still learning all the time. On the plus side we have covered a lot of ground and there’s a lot of time between now and qualifying tomorrow to completely understand how we can improve.”
Team Manager and Chief Engineer Nigel Stepney commented, “We did what we had to do today: completed the obligatory night qualifying laps for each driver and did more checks. We didn’t run any new tyres in the session and got caught in traffic on several potential fastest laps so the times aren’t entirely representative of our potential. We are struggling for grip and getting the tyres up to temperature but we do have an idea of why this is happening, which gives us a direction to go tonight.
The race can be seen live at www.fiawec.com and live onboard streaming can be seen live from www.jrm-racing.com
About JRM
After winning the 2011 FIA GT1 World Championship with Nissan, The British-based JRM Racing will partner with Honda Performance Developments to enter the brand new FIA World Endurance Championship in the LMP1 class. JRM Racing will enter a single LMP1 Honda Performance Development ARX-03a powered by a specially designed and tested 3.5-litre naturally aspirated V8 engine. The ARX-03a is currently hailed as the most competitive petrol Le Mans Prototype around.
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