LMP2: MALDONADO BRINGS BACK HIS MAGIC
Pastor Maldonado produced a bit of the magic he displayed on the way to his only grand prix win at Barcelona in 2012 to seal a first World Endurance Championship LMP2 victory for himself and Dragonspeed. The ex-williams Formula 1 driver, who shared the Franco-american team’s ORECAGIBSON 07 with Anthony Davidson and Roberto Gonzalez, charged down Nicolas Lapierre’s Signatech Alpine entry in the penultimate hour and drove away to what turned out to be a four-second victory.
It was far from plain sailing for Dragonspeed as it followed up on its podiums at Shanghai and Sebring. An airlock in the brakes meant they required bleeding on the grid and then Davidson, who started the car, was tagged by Tom Dillmann in the Bykolles LMP1 early in the race. But it was always there or thereabouts and the combination of an on-fire Maldonado and the wet-weather Michelin tyre, which was superior to the corresponding Dunlop, came together to give Dragonspeed the victory.
“We opted for a very good set-up for the different conditions and the team made all the right calls,” said Maldonado, who took over the car in fourth position for the run to the flag. “I was pretty confident with the car and, when the rain came back, I thought this is my time.”
Signatech, whose ORECA also uses Michelins, ran at or near the front throughout the race with Lapierre, Andre Negrao and Pierre Thiriet thanks in part to a strategic fuel stop when the safety car came out for a second time. The French team ultimately ended up third because the G-drive ORECA ahead of it when the red flags were shown needed to stop for fuel.
Jean-eric Vergne, who shared the Tds-run car with Roman Rusinov and Job van Uitert, was actually on his in-lap when the race was called. G-drive knew it had to gamble on strategy because it was always playing catch-up after losing time early on when Vergne pitted on three consecutive laps. He needed an emergency splash of fuel when the pits were closed, then went onto inters when he made his stop proper and came straight back in for slicks.
G-drive would have finished fourth had the race run its full duration, which would have promoted the Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA shared by Ho-pin Tung, Stephane Richelmi and Gabriel Aubry to the final podium spot. This was the only Dunlopshod P2 with a realistic shot of winning the class. Tung’s spin after he took over the car from Richelmi cost 50 seconds and blighted the #38 machine’s challenge.
The sister car driven by Will Stevens, Jordan King and David Heinemeier Hansson was never likely to repeat its Sebring class victory in March after being awarded a two-minute stop-go penalty early in the race. King had moved over on Dillmann at the La Source hairpin, putting the ENSO CLM into the barriers.