03.12.2012
, CASTELLET, France
MARTIN BRUNDLE BACK BEHIND THE WHEEL OF A RACING CAR
Martin Brundle made his return to sportscar racing at Paul Ricard on Saturday when he got behind the wheel of the Greaves Motorsport Zytek-Nissan at the official pre-season test for the European Le Mans Series.
The test began on Friday with Greaves’ ELMS squad of Nissan’s GT Academy graduate, Lucas Ordonez, Alex Brundle and Tom Kimber-Smith on driving duty. Martin joined the test on Saturday after a late night in London launching Sky’s new F1 channel.
With the Le Mans 24 Hours now only three months away and the F1 season about to start, Martin was keen to get out on track to grab as much seat time as possible in the car that he will race at Le Mans.
“It was good to get my first experience of the LMP2 car, which is much more agile than the sportscars I remember!” said Martin. “They’re effectively wide single-seaters now. The test went well and I was pleased to see that Alex and Lucas were fast and I was able to set a solid lap time and I managed to get a good 25 laps in. Considering the car came straight from being built at the factory to the racetrack it was great to have such a good run.
“We got through all the aero testing we needed to do and managed to try out some different tyres,” he continued. “There’s a technique to making these cars work and that is what Alex and Lucas can teach me. I was within a second of the quickest time though so I’m happy with what we achieved today. We had perfect conditions – the bluest sky you can imagine – and the team is on top of everything so it was a very positive test.”
The race is now on for Martin to get some more seat time before the Le Mans test in early June. Lucas and Alex will have plenty of time to practice as they have two six-hour ELMS races to compete in before then.