Team LNT Ginetta emerged from their debut race in the FIA World Endurance Championship’s premier LMP1 class at Silverstone with a hard-fought fourth place finish, and with their pair of Ginetta G60-LT-P1 AER cars sitting in second place in the FIA WEC World Teams Championship.
“I’m delighted both with the finishing position for the #5 car and the position it leaves us in the Championship after our home race,” said Team LNT owner and Ginetta Cars Chairman Lawrence Tomlinson.
“The pace was good in the dry, good in the wet and with very few reliability issues.
“The basic package is clearly capable of being ultimately competitive. It is after all our first race with the Ginetta-AER, as well as Team LNT’s first LMP1 race in 10 years!
“We’ll now spend the time before the next race in Japan looking at how we move car and team performance forward – the team were amazing and we’re a stronger unit more cohesive unit already.
“We have full respect both for this Championship, and for our competitors. We know how good they are, how long they’ve been developing their cars and teams and to get the result we have achieved this early against them just pushes us forward to be better still.
“It is a massive achievement for Team LNT Ginetta to be in second place in an FIA World Championship after round one – now we’ll prepare for Japan in October.”
The four hour race at Silverstone circuit saw both Ginettas show great speed both in the dry, and in a mid-race heavy shower.
The #5 G60 AER powered home to a fourth place finish for Ginetta Factory Driver Charlie Robertson and team-mates Egor Orudzhev and Ben Hanley.
The sister #6 car had a more troubled run with the most serious seeing Ginetta’s Mike Simpson suffering a freak wheel loss shortly after the start, the team now believe this was simply due to the initial fitting of the wheel on the grid.
This incident caused further issues with the car but didn’t stop Mike Simpson posting the Ginetta-AER’s fastest race lap later on.
Driver Quotes
#5 Team LNT Ginetta:
Charlie Robertson
“I can’t tell you how proud I am to be a part of this, and to get such a strong result so early in the programme will lift the whole team.
“The car had real performance throughout, and there are clear areas that can be addressed to make big steps very easily – There’s a lot more to come.”
Egor Orudzhev
“There’s no doubt that this car is a very strong package. I already knew from my team last year that the AER engine was very good, and in the Ginetta it has proved that once again.
“The car responded very well when I wanted to push, the lap times were coming and I think with the right programme there is much more to be found.”
Ben Hanley
“I made an error right at the start of my stint and was happy that having got back on track the car had the performance for me to make amends and grab fourth at the end.
“I was pushing hard and was finding time in the car – whilst a podium finish was just beyond us there’s no doubt that the potential is there – the base of the Ginetta-
AER is fantastic.
#6 Team LNT Ginetta
Mike Simpson
“We don’t know yet how and why we lost a wheel shortly after the race start, the nut was still in one piece. We’ll look at that back at base.
“That was a real shame as the pace was coming. I was delighted to get the fastest time across the two Ginettas (a 1:39.1) but the best news of all was the reliability across the board – Our delays were not related to the basic package, they were due to the wheel loss incident
We’ll take some real pluses from this and work hard to be smarter and slicker next time as a unit.”
Guy Smith
“I enjoyed that, it’s been a while since I raced an LMP1 and it requires a very different approach to the GT3 racing I’ve been doing most recently.
“Seeing the pace and the reliability of the Ginetta will encourage me to push harder and be more decisive into and through traffic, something that in the past has been a strong point.
“There’s a lot more to come from me, from the Ginetta, and from this team.”
Oliver Jarvis
“Having not tested the car before the weekend I had plenty of questions, and the Ginetta answered most of them very well.
“I had one incident in my stint that cost us time (a clash with a GTE Pro Ferrari). I genuinely believe that was a racing incident, but as the car passing I fully accept it is my responsibility to get by safely and I didn’t manage to do that – I have been down to try to talk to the team about it but I understand if they are upset with the outcome.
“After that the car though was still quick. With a cleaner race there’s little doubt that it has huge potential.”
Summary:
Team LNT Ginetta sit second in the FIA World Endurance Teams Championship points standings
#5 Ginetta G60-LT-P1 AER
4th place – 124 Laps – Best lap 1:39.271
#6 Ginetta G60-LT-P1 AER
28th place (6th in LMP1) – 112 Laps – Best Lap 1:39.180
