With a new crew for this new campaign, Gilles Duqueine's team arrived at the opening 4 Hours of Barcelona with measured ambitions, and with the desire to build on the good winter preparation.
The #30 Oreca 07 was quickly on the pace in free practice, and shined in qualifying on Saturday, when Reshad De Gerus claimed a superb pole position. On his return to the team, the man from Reunion confirmed his speed in the middle of the pack of the fastest drivers and gave Duqueine Team its first pole position since Portimão 2018.
With the preferred grid position, expectations were bound to be high on Sunday for the race. In his ELMS debut, Francesco Simonazzi put in a fine performance, holding the advantage at the first corner and keeping the #30 Oreca on the right pack.
Roy Nissany, the second driver on track and also a debutant at this level, kept in touch with the leaders. After a series of neutralizations and pitstops, the Gard-based LMP2 crossed the halfway mark in 4th place and the 3rd hour in 5th.
At the wheel for the final sprint, however, Reshad De Gerus was unable to show his speed due to a greabox issue that forced the team to retire the car.
Next race will be in Paul Ricard (May 3-4).
Francesco Simonazzi: "It's been a pretty solid weekend since Friday, when we were close to our rivals. Race pace always looked good from my side, as was Roy's, as we were fine tuning the car for qualifying. In the race, everthing started weel. I struggled a bit with the second set of tires, but managed to stay close to the others. I'm satisfied with the overall performance, the way we worked and how we adapted to the car and championship so quickly."
Reshad De Gerus: "We showed a good performance in Barcelona. We had high hopes for the race after Saturday's pole, but I had a gearbox issue since the beginning of my stint. It got worse and we had to retire. A bitter feeling, but overall, the weekend was positive thanks to team's good work. We're going to work to be faster for the next race in Paul Ricard."
Roy Nissany: "An interesting first weekend and personally my first ever Endurance race. I saw where I needed to work and improve. I know I can do it. On the car and the team side, I'm delighted with what we achieved during the Prologue, qualifying and the race. Technical issues are part of racing and can also affect our rivals later in the season."
Jean-Karl Vernay (Sporting director): "It’s promising. We cannot be happy about the ending, but we have been very strong, working very hard from the Prologue. It paid off in qualifying with the fantastic pole position, a new record. The race was good. Francesco showed a really good pace, and did a great job as a rookie. Same for Roy. They both need to learn. We know what we need to improve also for the team, making less little mistakes to move forward and be a contender for the win."
