Great performance for Team Duqueine yesterday, Sunday, May 5th, at the Paul Ricard circuit in Le Castellet, France, in the second round of the 2024 European Le Mans Series (ELMS) season.
Despite a challenging and eventful start from eighth position, the team showed remarkable resilience throughout the 125 laps of the 4-hour race. Behind the wheel of the ORECA 07 drivers James Allen, Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer and Niels Koolen, secured sixth place.
James Allen: “The 4h of Le Castellet was definitely a step in the right direction for us after Barcelona. We seemed to have quite strong pace in the car and, despite an incident at the start of the race dropping us to the back, we were able to come back and finish well within the points. I can’t thank the team enough for the week and am looking forward to returning to the 24h Le Mans in June.”
Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer: “It was a challenging race with widespread tire issues, but I think we managed quite well despite a difficult start. After all, it’s a positive week, making a turnaround from our previous race in Barcelona. Moving forward, we will have to keep pushing even harder to reach the podium.”
Niels Koolen: “I’m happy that we could show our real potential as a team with our sixth place. After some incidents our start was not good, but thanks to our great teamwork and a good car, the result was satisfying.”
Max Favard, Team Manager: “The start of the race was chaotic, and we initially lost some progress. Tire management and strategy was the key to the success today. From P14 the three drivers came back to P6 with an impressive performance by James in the final minutes. It was a good step forward in this high-level championship. Now we have to run a completely clean race to be back on the podium.”
Duqueine Team is now gearing up for the adrenaline-filled challenge at the Imola circuit on July 7th.