European Le Mans Series teams headed to the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza for the third round of the season. With a podium (P2) finish for Panis Racing trio Job Van Uitert/Nico Jamin/Julien Canal.
As usual, Thursday was dedicated to collective testing (P2 in the morning, P8 in the afternoon), followed by free practice morning sessions on Friday (P3) and Saturday (P3).
The qualification session ended with a front row spot for Panis Racing, thanks to Job Van Uitert effort.
In “The Temple of Speed”, Julien Canal was in action for the start of the race, alongside the TDS Racing car in pole position. In the first corner, Julien made the move, leading the pack for the first three opening laps. He then lost two places, behind the Cool Racing and Prema Racing cars, before two safety car periods. At the restart, he regained the second place. Safety Cars once again put the race on hold for some times. Nico Jamin started his stint under SC conditions, and then drove for 1h15 with great pace before heading the car over to Job Van Uitert. The Dutchman fought like hell to catch up some of the rivals ahead and made a fantastic move on the Prema Racing car of Louis Deletraz.
Thanks to a good strategy by the team and some penalties for several of our competitors, the Oreca #65 was back where all started in this race: in P2. Despite a quick splash and dash 15 minutes to the end, Panis Racing crossed the finish line in second position.
Sarah Abadie – Team Manager: “We have to say it was quite a hard race because of the heat. Finishing second after such demanding conditions is a great result and proved how consistent we are. I am proud of the guys in the pit. We all know how tiny the pits of Monza are, but our whole crew did a perfect job in terms of strategy, pit stop executions… On track, the drivers did a great job as well. We would have loved to win of course, but the IDEC team did a better job. We will work like hell to gain what was missing today. That P2 is a great result in the championship standings as we are getting closer to the leader, Prema Racing. The team is motivated as never before to fight for race wins in the second part of the season. After a small summer break, we will be back with only one goal: winning the title.”
Julien Canal : “Thanks to Job, I had the opportunity to start from the first row. It’s always an exceptional moment to start a race like that. I took the lead in the first corner, and then I had to fight against strong teams such Cool Racing and Prema Racing. The team made the right calls in the pits, and my teammates drove superbly. This podium is fully deserved!”
Nico Jamin : “It’s a good result for the whole team with the extra points we got to reduce the gap with Prema in the standings. Job did a great job in qualifying by reaching P2. In the race, no one made a mistake, unlike some of the competitors we were fighting with. We will focus on getting a little more pace to win the next races, but it remains a very positive weekend.”
Job Van Uitert : “I am very happy with that second place in Monza. Not an easy race for us as competition was very strong. But we all kept our head cool in the hot conditions by not making any mistakes. We are there in the top each time we have a race without any problem. All in all, I am very happy for the team. It was important to close the gap to Prema. Now we can fight for the title in the ELMS championship. Can’t wait to see how it goes in the next three races.”
Wil jij ons magazine ook lezen? Meld je dan aan via “bestellen” op onze website: www.start84.nl
