On only its second appearance on the European Grand Touring scene, the LMP Motorsport team scored the first podiums in its young history. At Silverstone, Maxime Martin and Gaël Lesoudier drove their Aston Martin DBRS9 to a brilliant second place on Saturday and followed it up on Sunday with third spot. These results propelled the Franco-Belgian pairing to fourth overall in the FIA GT3 European Championship ratings.
The team’s international baptism of fire took place in Portimao at the beginning of May. Maxime and Gaël already made a name for themselves by fighting in the top 3 before bagging the points for seventh place. A few days later LMP Racing was back in the French FFSA GT Championship, just missing out on a podium finish on the Dijon-Prenois circuit. Third looked on the cards for Luc Paillard and Arno Santamato when a mistake by Race Control dropped them back to sixth at the chequered flag. The officials acknowledged their error but they only partially compensated the drivers in the 009 Aston who had to make do with fourth place. The results achieved in England were welcomed as a just reward by the team jointly managed by Guillaume Lecluse and Yves Migeon.
On the new-look Silverstone circuit LMP Motorsport kicked off the weekend with fastest time in free practice. Gaël Lesoudier started race 1 on the outside of the fourth row and drove a quick and intelligent stint. He knew that the race lasted an hour and that he had to look after the tyres, which didn’t prevent him from moving up two places in the hierarchy. Maxime Martin also drove a stunner and fought his way up to second place in the no. 9 Aston Martin.
On Sunday, the team was hoping to renew if not improve its result as the car was starting from second place on the grid. However, the regulations also had to be reckoned with. This year, the handicap ballast on the first three cars for the following race has been replaced by the obligation to spend more time at the pits during the driver change. Maxime took the lead at the start while there was a multiple collision in the middle of the pack, which led to the elimination of the second LMP Motorsport Aston Martin driven by Enjalbert/Delhez. The race was neutralized and the 24 survivors bunched up behind the safety car. Maxime was not able to open up a big enough gap to compensate for the 10 seconds lost in the pits (regulations). When the race restarted he was overtaken by a BMW. The Bavarian cars were flying in Silverstone and in the second part of the race a second BMW passed Gaël who managed to hang on to the Z4s. At the finish only 5 seconds separated the LMP Aston Martin from the winner. The team could certainly have won if they had not finished on the podium the day before!
“We were able to consolidate our potential thanks to several factors; the work of the whole team who are now really getting to know the DBRS9, better cohesion with Aston Martin Racing, and of course the talent of Maxime and Gaël. We’re the only team that managed to score two podiums this weekend which wasn’t very easy with the current handicapping system” was how Yves analyzed the situation. “It’s a great feeling to score our first podium finish, above all in the European Championship, in which the level is very high”, added Guillaume. “We spent two days at AMR preparing the cars. We’ve strengthened our links and we benefitted from technical support from the factory. That helped to give our drivers the best Aston possible. Everybody did the maximum to get the best out of the capacities of the car.”
LMP Motorsport will be back in the GT Tour on the Val de Vienne circuit on 25-26 June, followed by three meetings in quick succession: Europe at Navarra, France at Magny-Cours and Europe again in France at Le Castellet.
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