Alexander Sims was holding a strong fourth place early in his second stint when he was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop. The problems, which the team had hoped to fix, proved terminal and Status GP had to withdraw the car from the race, which was the second round of the European Le Mans Series.

The early retirement meant that French brothers Julien and Maxime Jousse were unable to race the car in what would have been their first race with Status GP. The duo had shown very strong speed and consistency during the practice sessions, and an excellent approach.

From sixth on the grid, Sims passed Alex Brundle on the opening lap in a brave move at the ultra-fast Old Hairpin to take fifth. He then forced Pierre Thiriet wide at the McLeans curve a few laps into the race to take fourth.

Sims jumped to third during the opening round of pit stops as the OAK Racing Morgan team elected to change tyres on the car driven by Bertrand Baguette. With his new rubber, Baguette then repassed the Briton, who nevertheless was looking in strong shape before the car was forced out.

Status GP technical director Rob Arnott said: “Alexander drove a blinding race. He made a superb start, did a nice couple of passing moves and then drove very sensibly. He had good pace, and up until the issue we were looking good enough on pace to be right up there at the finish. Just after the first pit stop we had a low-battery-voltage alarm. We carried on for a few laps but then we had to investigate the problem. We had lost the alternator drivebelt and that was it for our race. Naturally we’re disappointed, but we just have to move on and get things sorted for the next race.”

DRIVER QUOTES

Alexander Sims: “It was fun when I was in the car. Everything was feeling really good. We were just a couple of tenths off the leaders’ pace, and our car was very good on its tyres and able to maintain a strong speed. The first part of the race went as well as we could have hoped, but a few laps into my second stint we became aware of a problem. We monitored it for a while, during which I kept pushing in case it cleared, but then decided it would need to be repaired. It’s very disappointing as we could have had a very strong result.”

Julien Jousse: “That’s motorsport. It’s a shame because everything was looking good. I finally got to drive in the dry in the warm-up, and I liked the car very much. Thankyou to the Status GP mechanics, because they did a great job and the problem is not their fault. Of course you are always disappointed when you do not race, but I hope this is only the start of my collaboration with the team and that next time I can drive a stint in the race!”

Maxime Jousse: “I got into the car to take over from Alexander. We thought it would take only two or three minutes to fix, but we found out it was a much bigger problem. It’s very disappointing but that’s life. It’s a shame, because Alexander did a good job, the car was OK and it was not heavy on its tyres at all.”

Source : Status GP