Aston Martin Racing driver Harold Primat and his Aston Martin team mates took a sensational victory in the American Le Mans Series at Laguna Seca on Saturday.
Starting from third on the grid, Harold and his LMP1 team mates; Adrian Fernandez and Stefan Mücke, drove a superb race to finish on the top step of the podium following six hours of intense racing.
On Friday, Adrian had taken to the world-famous 2.238 mile Monterey circuit for qualifying and posted a lap time of 1:14.621 which secured the DBR1-2 third on the grid.
It was then up to Stefan to take control of the 007 car for the start of the race on Saturday afternoon. Within just ten minutes, he had carved his way through the field into first place. With the top four matching each other for lap times, the four cars spent the first hour trading track positions before Stefan pitted and Harold took over for his first stint of the afternoon.
Following the pitstop, Harold rejoined the track in third place and immediately began to close the gap on second place. Heading into the iconic ‘corkscrew’, Harold made an impressive move for second place and was then right up on the back of the first placed driver challenging for the lead.
After a total of three and a half hours of exciting wheel to wheel racing, Primat pitted and Adrian took the wheel; rejoining in fourth place. Continuing to battle hard on this tight and twisty track, Adrian moved up to third position before coming in for the next driver change.
With the top four so evenly matched, pit stop strategy was to play a key role in the outcome of the race. When Stefan took over from Adrian with one hour to go in the race he was able to leapfrog the second placed car in the pits and return to the track in second place.
Putting in a series of flying laps, Stefan began to reel in the first placed driver, and with fifty minutes left on the clock, successfully caught and passed the Dyson Racing car for the lead.
Despite having been racing for almost six hours, the second and third placed cars were still tantalisingly close to the 007 car, but Stefan continued to push on and brought the Aston Martin Racing LMP1 home in first place to secure victory on the team’s return to the American Le Mans Series.
Yesterday’s victory is Harold Primat’s second victory with Aston Martin Racing in the LMP1 category. It follows a win in Okayama in the Asian Le Mans Series in 2009.
“This is an absolutely fantastic result for the whole team. It is a great feeling to be standing back on the top step of the podium and the whole team should be proud of today’s result. Everyone has worked extremely hard to keep improving the car step by step and today’s victory is testimony to all that effort;” commented Harold Primat.
“The team did a super job on strategy and my team mates Adrian and Stefan did a fantastic job in the car. Laguna Seca is a demanding circuit as it is fairly short and has some really twisty sections like ‘the corkscrew’, but the car was handling beautifully so we were all able to push hard and come home in first place. We now look ahead to Petit Le Mans in two weeks time where we will all be working hard to try and get a repeat of today’s result;” continued Harold Primat.
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Notes to editors:
About Harold Primat:
Harold Primat is a Swiss racing driver with over 15 years racing experience including British F3, World Series Lights, Le Mans Series and American Le Mans Series.
Harold Primat is supported by the following personal sponsors; Banque Baring Brothers Sturdza, Harwood International, Crans Montana and Primland.
www.haroldprimat.com
Follow Harold on Twitter @Harold_Primat and on Facebook
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