The 13.605km La Sarthe track proved as challenging as ever for the determined Jota Sport team this weekend. The team and drivers performed faultlessly, despite being on the receiving end of the mighty Le Mans 24 Hours; working relentlessly up until an unfortunate early retirement at the 20th hour.

The LMP2 class was dramatic from start to finish making the 80th Le Mans 24 Hours captivating for the 300,000 strong crowd, yet unforgiving for the team and Jota Sport drivers; Sam Hancock; Simon Dolan and Haruki Kurosawa.

After a consistent qualifying session on Wednesday night, only hindered by traffic on the grid; Thursday’s sessions were set to test the Jota team early on. After an unfortunate collision at the end of the first session, the team chose not to run the third and final qualifying session in order to be able to start the race with a full compliment of serviceable spares.

As the clock struck three on Saturday afternoon, the team started on a high; continued with their consistent lap times, and there was a positive air filling the Jota garage, as Jota Sport Official Driver, Sam Hancock describes:

“There’s no hiding from the disappointment of this one, but only because everything had been looking so promising. The Jota boys have worked so hard all year to prepare an incredibly reliable and fast car and the support from Zytek has been, as ever, outstanding. We were quick in the test, quick in practice, had the fastest average pace across all three drivers and looked good for the race. But Le Mans is a huge, huge challenge and we’ve been reminded today how hard it is to get to the flag, let alone win. But I’ve enjoyed every minute regardless, particularly the quadruple stint in the night – we had the car up to 4th position and it felt fantastic. These are the memories I’ll try to take away from this year, along with a huge amount of pride at having the opportunity to work with such a phenomenal bunch of people. I am immensely grateful for their efforts and for the opportunity to be a part of it all. We’ll be back!”

As Hancock handed the wheel to fellow British driver and team mate, Simon Dolan, for his triple stint of the night, it seemed the fortunes would change:

“It was fantastic to return to Le Mans with a great car and great team, having proved our winning potential at Spa. However, despite having everything in place for a potential podium finish, it clearly wasn’t going to be our race; my last outing in the car was eventful to say the least – it’s frustrating but that’s the nature of Le Mans.”

Jota Sport have once again been left with a sour taste in their mouth, having felt the wrath of punishing 24 Heures Du Mans, the team will now pack down and look onto the next race.

“After such a fantastic job from the team and drivers it is really gutting to have to retire on a technicality with just 4 hours to go. Our strategy saw us running fractionally slower but a lap longer on every stint than our rivals so we were set for a great result.

The whole team have done Jota proud this weekend and we have learnt an immense amount that will see us come back stronger, harder, and faster next year” commented Jota Sport Team Principal, Sam Hignett.

Source : Jota