Jun
12
Olly Gavin: Pole position at Le Mans
Hi to everyone from Le Mans which is turning out to be pretty good so far! We had a good couple of days of practice and qualifying sessions and thought we’d be starting just behind the Risi Ferrari, but since they were pushed to the back of the grid for a technical infraction, we’ve been bumped up to the number one spot in the GT2 class. Our sister car is just behind us, as Jan (Magnussen) got a pretty good lap in. The two Corvettes and the two Ferraris were the only four to get under the four-minute a lap barrier – which is about 3 seconds a lap quicker than last year’s qualifying times..
It’s always special to get pole position here because the competition is so high from so many great teams and drivers. It’s never nice getting it from another team’s misfortune though and I’d have loved to beat the Ferrari in a straight fight on the track, but we can save that for Saturday and Sunday.
It seems that the two Corvettes and the two Ferraris that were originally at the front are very close on speed, and it’s going to be a very tight and intense race. The Porsches are only a tiny bit behind on speed and they’ve got fantastic driver line ups with very good teams so I know they’ll be challenging right from the start. The BMW is a very new car but they should be strong – both team and drivers – so can’t be discounted.
As always here in qualifying, it was a bit of a banzai run. The guys sent me out with great tyres and good position on the track. I felt that if only we could get a clean lap and I could get it all together, the time would be there. I made a small mistake coming out of Dunlop chicane – I got on the Astroturf and it spun the rear tyres up. I was concentrating on the chicanes and I got through those cleanly, and then I stumbled upon a GT1 car in the second chicane. I pushed like crazy for the rest of the lap, and in the Porsche Curves I was really holding on…one small slip and it could have all gone horribly wrong! The Ford chicane was still a little damp, so I had to hold my breath and wing it.
It looks like Saturday and Sunday’s race is going to be a fantastic battle between us and Ferrari and Porsche. This event is massively important to the team and to GM and has really been our focus for the year. Bring it on.