1000Km of Hungaroring – The Improbable Order
A podium trusted by the LMP2s, who could imagine? Could you foresee when arriving on the Hungarian track that one hour before the finish of the race, two LMP1 (N°4 Team Beechdean Mansell and N°8 Team Siganture Plus) would save the King category’s honour among the ten first classified while the LMP2s would take the lion’s share, trusting the five first places from half the race?
Nobody could hold a candle to Strakka Racing’s Danny Watts on Sunday morning’s qualifying in Hungary, and the British team’s overall victory made history with the very first overall victory for a LMP2 car in the Le Mans Series.
With its slow corners and its narrow straights, overtaking at the Hungaroring is far from easy and the fast prototypes sometimes had hard time to work their way through traffic.
On LMGT2 side the score is also an remarkable one since eight of them have joined in, far ahead Larbre Compétition’s GT1 which nevertheless wins now the 2010 category title.
LMP2 cars over the moon !, Not to put too fine a point on it, Strakka Racing’s performance at Hungaroring left their rivals stunned and especially reigning champion Quifel-ASM Team. For a long time it seemed that the Portuguese team might yet snatch victory from under Strakka Racing’s nose, but they finally finished second.
After two hours of the race, the LMP1s have resumed control and are firmly decided to show who the boss is, but unfortunately with a high level of downforce, exceptionally low grip and high track temperatures, the 1,000Km of Hungaroring proved too much for LMP1 chassis.
MP2 HPD ARX-01c n°42 (Team Strakka Racing) keeps so far the lead of this fourth round. You must go down until 6th position to see LMP1 Ginetta-Zytek 09S’ name.
At one hour before the chequered flag is shown, the show is a première in the Le Mans Series history. An original classification with five LMP2s leading the pack. Team Beechdean Mansell is the only one to save the King category’s honour remaining in the top tens.
The trend is the same on the GT side. The LMGT2s overtake the powerful GT1s. Eight of them are ahead the Saleen S7-R (n°50 – Larbre Competition) which ranks 17.
In a thrilling race with many changes at the front, the success story of the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR continues: After winning the 24 hours of Le Mans and holding the championship lead of the Le Mans Series, the German GT has once again won the LMGT2 class thanks to Team Felbermayr-Proton and Porsche works drivers Richard Lietz and Marc Lieb.
Editorial : Mu’az Zakaria / Le Mans Series
Photo : Le Mans Series Press
