The AMR Larbre Competition team will start the 75th Le Mans 24 Hour race from pole position in the GT1 class, thanks to a time set on Wednesday evening by Le Mans veteran Christophe Bouchut.
Bouchut, a Le Mans winner in 1993, said: “It’s been a long time since I won Le Mans, and since then I’ve driven most types of sports car. The Aston Martin is a very quick and easy car to drive, which I am sure contributed to our pole position. ’
With heavy rain characterising the final two qualifying sessions, held once more from 1900-2100 and 2200-0000 yesterday, none of the DBR9 crews were able to improve upon the times they set previously – in conditions which were damp rather than wet.
The two Aston Martin Racing cars – numbered 007 and 009 – concentrated on finding a decent wet-weather set-up for what is increasingly likely to be a race of mixed conditions.
The 009 car will line up fourth on the grid, thanks to a time set by David Brabham on Wednesday, while the 007 car is 10th with a time set by Johnny Herbert.
Team Modena’s DBR9 was sixth, while the Aston Martin Racing BMS DBR9 was eighth. The final Larbre car will line up 15th on the GT1 grid. All six Aston Martins had no problems throughout the two sessions, and the drivers are confident of finding a good race set-up.
Brabham commented: “The conditions were very difficult but we expected that, which is why it was so important to set a good base time on Wednesday. With the heavy rain, there was no point in pushing hard to try and improve. Instead, we used the time to try to work out a good wet set-up. ”
Team Principal George Howard-Chappell said: “Despite these tricky conditions, we’re confident of having a good race pace. But Le Mans is an unpredictable event at the best of times, and on this occasion the weather looks set to add another element of surprise. ”
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