Unfortunately Maxime Martin’s third participation at the 24 Hours of Le Mans did not come to a successful ending. The Brussels based driver was defending the colours of the French Thiriet by TDS Racing team in an LM P2 Oreca Nissan, but notwithstanding a solid race and an almost certain sixth place in the hard fought LM P2 class matters turned sour near the end of the event. With a mere one hour from the finish his French teammate Pierre Thiriet was caught out by a sudden rainsquall. The car crashed into the safety barrier and the adventure was over.
Together with the French teammates Pierre Thiriet and Ludovic Badey the sporting and human Le Mans adventure started off on Wednesday for Maxime Martin. “Everything seemed to be running reasonably well, right up until our teammate Pierre went off during the first evening qualifying session”, Maxime Martin commented. “The car was seriously damaged and for us it looked as though everything was over, but not for the team. The Thiriet by TDS crew immediately set about their hard work and managed to provide us with a brilliant new car. I take my hat off for their work. The downside of the crash was the fact that we would be taking the start far back on the grid, whereby we would immediately be in for a catch up race.”
Saturday on the dot of 15.00hrs the 81st edition of the world’s greatest race kicked off and Martin drove a terrific first stint, notwithstanding the changing weather conditions. He climbed up towards the top-5 in his class and this from a place far down in the classification.
“We knew already then that we were lacking pure top speed as compared to the eventual winners. A third or fourth place would have been the highest possible, but due to a problem with our brakes we lost several laps during the course of the race. As from then we fought back up into sixth place, which we solidly defended right up until just before the finish”, Martin continued. “Throughout the entire race the conditions were extremely variable, with sporadic localised showers on various sections of the circuit. You could go from wet to dry and back to wet again during one lap! It was extremely difficult and a skid lurked at every bend.”
During one of the last showers Pierre Thiriet was unfortunately caught off-guard and the race was over. “This could have happened to any one of us. I so longed to reward the entire team with a finish.”
Unfortunately the Le Mans race was overshadowed by the tragic accident of Allan Simonsen, the Danish Aston Martin driver. “What happened to Allan affects us all. I would like to express my condolences to his family and friends, because this is an unimaginable. The thoughts of the entire motorsport family are with them. “
Source : Maxime Martin