Le Mans 24 Hours debutant team Status Grand Prix was running in ninth place in class as the race reached its quarter-distance mark.
The team’s Lola-Judd B12/80 Coupe, driven by Yelmer Buurman, Alexander Sims and Romain Iannetta, had fought through the field from 20th and last in the LMP2 class.
Dutchman Buurman started from eighth on the grid, but pitted as a precaution at the end of lap four because of a problem at the rear of the car that led the team to initially suspect he had a puncture. Buurman rejoined for three more stints on new tyres, fighting through huge gaggles of GTE-Pro cars. He briefly rose as high as ninth through out-of-synch stops before handing the car to Sims in 15th place.
Englishman Sims then had three stints, making further progress up the order. With the Status GP machine showing excellent consistency and Sims driving well, he gave the car to Iannetta in eighth place, after running as high as seventh and setting the car’s fastest lap of the race to date.
While Buurman and Sims drove triple-stints and made their Dunlop tyres last throughout two hours and 15 minutes of racing, Iannetta was on a double-stint as the race reached six hours. His racing was interrupted by an enormous accident between the Toyota of Anthony Davidson and a Ferrari GT car, which meant the safety car had been out for an hour when quarter-distance was reached.
Status GP team manager Simon Cayzer said: “It’s not too bad. We went out of sequence a little bit with having to stop early. It could have been a puncture, but we now think we had a problem at the rear end of the car – it was possibly a combination of the track and pick-up on the rear tyres.
”The track was really strange after the rain we’d had overnight and all morning, and it took a while for it to rubber back in. Since then the car has been pretty good, and the drivers have done a fine job keeping their noses clean.
”We’re happy with our fuel strategy and our tyre usage is very good, which will pay dividends in the long run. Our best wishes go out to Anthony Davidson – that battle for the lead gave us among the best five minutes in Le Mans history!”
Yelmer Buurman:
“It was tricky at the beginning. We had a problem on our first set of tyres and we lost a lot of time because of that. Afterwards I just made the most of the long stints. It was quite a good run, and Alexander did a great stint as well, so we’re slowly getting closer to the front.”
Alexander Sims:
“I felt quite confident out there. The car felt solid the whole way through. I think we’ve got a really good race car – it’s very predictable and steady. I got a flat-spot in my second stint when I locked up under braking while passing someone on the dirty side of the track. That gave me quite a lot of vibration, but it was bearable.”
Source : Status Grand Prix