Priaulx enjoys winning start
Date published : 20 Mar 2011 - 11:00:06
Andy Priaulx made a victorious start to his bid for Intercontinental Le Mans Cup honours this year at the Sebring 12-hour endurance race.
The three-times World Touring Car champion has turned his attention to GT racing with BMW this season, and the Guernseyman could not have wished for a more perfect beginning. Priaulx, along with co-drivers Dirk Müller and Joey Hand, came out on top in the GT class in their M3 at the Florida circuit.
"This is a fantastic result," said Priaulx. "We made no mistakes, the team was absolutely spot-on with everything, and the car had really good speed all event."
He added: "It is great to have Sebring on the CV as it is a brilliant event and an amazing atmosphere. Everyone has done a great job, not only this weekend, but also over the winter to produce the car."
Priaulx and his team finished 10th overall in the race as the ORECA Peugeot 908 HDi, driven by French trio Nicolas Lapierre, Loic Duval and Olivier Panis, grabbed the spoils in a three-way fight for the chequered flag.
Duval brought the car home almost 32 seconds ahead of the Highcroft team's petrol-powered HPD driven by Simon Pagenaud from France, Australian David Brabham and Scotland's Marino Franchitti, younger brother of three-time Indy Car champion Dario.
The No8 factory Peugeot of Franck Montagny, Stephane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy was 44 seconds adrift in third, with the team denied victory after losing a lap when their car required a new nose after 10 hours.
In the final outing for Audi's successful R15 TDi, Scotland's Allan McNish had to settle for fourth along with regular partners Tom Kristensen of Denmark and Italian Dindo Capello. Although the Audi, aiming for a 10th win at Sebring, led on several occasions, an accident robbed them the chance of the win, resulting in them finishing five laps down.
McNish said: "It was a tense and close-fought battle as we'd expected. But our bid for victory was destroyed when Marc Gene miscalculated entering one of the fast turns and hit the side of Dindo which damaged our car's suspension.
"That cost us a number of laps for repairs, so it was a case of recovering the best we could from that major setback. It's a case of what might have been, but we can take heart from just how competitive our 'old' car was against the new cars."
