Audi Sport Team Joest's mechanics yesterday had a sleepless night 48 hours earlier than planned as they rebuilt the No.1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro
began preparing a new car in the team garage so it is ready for the second qualifying session at Le Mans on Thursday. Instead of Loïc Duval, who stayed in the hospital overnight under observation, Marc Gené will be starting for Audi. The Spaniard has been part of the Audi Le Mans squad since 2011, completed several track tests with the current Audi R18 e-tron quattro and was originally planned to run in the Le Mans 24 Hours in an LMP2 sports car of the JOTA team.
The drivers of car number ‘1’ still have to do their mandatory laps at night on Thursday in order to qualify for the race. The same is true for many other drivers, as the first qualifying session was stopped early after accidents and only 50 minutes of the originally planned two hours were available.
Following confirmation last night that Marc Gené would be replacing Loïc Duval in the No.1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro alongside Tom Kristensen and Lucas di Grassi, the Spaniard has had an
I’ve had four days of testing, two two-day tests at Paul Ricard and then Aragon so I’ve got used to the functionality of the car, and I’m confident about the track because I’ve had the LMP2 tests here. I’ll be a bit on the back foot, but I don’t think Audi could have a better reserve driver than me.
I will leave the qualifying to Lucas and Tom and we will have to sacrifice a bit of the qualifying sessions this evening to give me some seat time, but I think we will be in good shape for the race.
