Team RLR will start it’s first ever Le Mans Series race from 13th place overall after Warren Hughes handed the British squad a solid starting position at the Hungaroring today (Sunday, August 22).
The Bolton-based outfit was eighth-quickest in the LMP2 class and finished the session within touching distance of the top four in the category, an achievement that satisfied the pre-event objectives for the newcomers to the world’s premier endurance racing series.
With Team RLR having enjoyed a very productive day of practice on Saturday refining the setup of the MG Lola EX265, Hughes went into qualifying believing the car was capable of delivering a result that would surprise class rivals.
However, despite posting a top six time early on, the former Le Mans 24 Hours class winner was left to rue the tightness of the Hungaroring as traffic hampered his progress and he was frustrated in his efforts to improve his best time before the end of the short 20-minute session.
That meant Team RLR had to be satisfied with a midfield starting slot for the race, in which Barry Gates will drive the opening stint for the Le Mans Series rookies.
The team’s main objective will be to avoid any problems in what is expected to be difficult conditions for overtaking on the narrow 2.75mile Hungaroring circuit, with the aim of securing a finish in its debut appearance in the championship.
Warren Hughes, Team RLR driver, said: “I’m reasonably happy with our qualifying result. I feel we could’ve got a little more out of it but I got caught in traffic a bit and a yellow flag came out just at the wrong time for us, so it was slightly frustrating from that point of view. However, the car feels good and once we’ve made a few small changes during the warm up I’m pretty confident we’ll be set for a good race. The conditions are perfect and although it’s a tough track to pass on it probably suits our car better than some others, so we have a chance of taking a really good result away from here if we perform to our potential.”
Nick Reynolds, Team RLR team principal said: “We’re in a nice spot for Barry to start the race. It was a shame Warren got held up by traffic, it was just not running for him out there, but that happens sometimes in racing. He put in some very good individual sector times but didn’t get the chance to string three really good ones together without someone in the way. We’ll now run Barry [Gates] in the warm up to help him find his feet ahead of the race start and then we’ll be as ready as we can possibly be. We’ve had a very good weekend so far so let’s hope that will be reflected in our race performance.”
Source : RLR