The new AMR-One continued its development phase today at Paul Ricard at the opening round of the Le Mans Series completing 22 laps in free practice 3 and went on to qualify in 11th overall (5th in class) ahead of tomorrow’s six hour endurance race.
Both sessions today were used to get more laps under the wheels of the new in-house developed LMP1 race car. Following some initial teething problems, the new two litre turbo-charged and intercooled straight six engine ran solidly for the longest so far in its development.
Official partner teams, Jota Sport and Young Driver are competing for the first time with their new factory Vantage GT2s in the LM GTE Pro class with Young Driver ace Tomas Enge (CZ) putting in the fastest lap in free practice 3 at 1:58.262. Young Driver went on to qualify in 2nd position in 1:58.773 just two hundredth of a second behind the pole positioned car. Jota qualified in 9th position.
Team Principal George Howard-Chappell said: “I am pleased we have managed to get some informative laps in today with AMR-One, the car is in the very early stages of development so we have been, and will be making modifications throughout the weekend.
“All drivers have now driven the circuit and the feedback is that the foundation is very solid; we now need to concentrate on the setup of the car to encourage its dynamics and pace.”
Stefan Mücke (D) who qualified the AMR-One said: “We are learning about the car now, and we made a couple of changes between free practice and qualifying. We now know how the car is reacting and it’s another step in our learning curve.
“I am quite optimistic that we will find more steps forward tomorrow; a lot of work to do but we are definitely heading in the right direction.”