Workshop Keep Up To Date With The Team From The Inside
Back in Action at Silverstone
The Gulf AMR Middle East team sprung back into Intercontinental Le Mans Cup action at the Silverstone track in Northamptonshire, qualifying today for tomorrow’s six hour endurance race. After being forced to miss the Imola round of the series, it is the first time the team has been back on track since the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June.
Fabien Giroix took the No. 60 Gulf Oil International-liveried Aston Martin GTE-Am around the 5.14 km track in a time of 2:06.976 and will start from seventh on the GTE-Am grid for the British round of the ILMC.
- Pit stop action at the new Silverstone Wing pits
Yesterday saw two practice sessions of one hour each, much of which was used to fully familiarise the driver line up of Fabien Giroix, Mike Wainwright and Roald Goethe with the Grand Prix track. A gearbox problem restricted set up time, which was further reduced this morning by a long red flag stoppage in the hour of practice prior to qualifying.
Frenchman Giroix was somewhat frustrated after qualifying, which took place in rapidly changing weather conditions but on a dry track, and said: “With the red flags and short practice time we had, we didn’t have enough time to work on the set up of the car. It wasn’t handling as well as I would have liked, and by the end of the 20 minutes I didn’t want to use the tyres too much so couldn’t push too hard.”
For British driver Mike Wainwright, this is his first race since his accident at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June which saw him briefly hospitalised. He made a rapid recovery and said he was pleased to be back behind the wheel:
“The only time I feel any reminder of it is getting in and out of the car but it’s momentary. Roald and I had a good test here at Silverstone last week in an Aston Martin GT4 so at least we were able to come to the track and know some of the intricacies of it before this weekend.”
The race begins at 11:35 am and finishes at 17:35 pm tomorrow. The weather is expected to be dry but cool.