LMS: Disappointment After Team Modena Set Early Pace - 09.04.2008

The Team Modena Aston Martin DBR9 retired from the opening round of the 2008 Le Mans Series on Sunday after setting the LM GT1 class pace in the early laps. A problem stranded the car on the circuit after 124-laps of the 1000km race, ending a promising run and a possible class victory.

The weekend had started strongly, Team Modena claiming pole position for the race in Saturday's 15-minute qualifying session. Team regular Garcia set the time with just three minutes of qualifying remaining to set the LM GT1 class pace.

"It is really close," said Antonio García at his local round of the series after topping the times. "We know the track, it is very aggressive on the tyres and knew the first lap would be the fastest lap. This is a good starting point for the season because we know that we have a good car for the race too."

In the early laps of the race Garcia led the class and was the quickest GT1 car on the circuit, and the team recovered from an early delay to close in the class leader and be second at the halfway point in the six-hour race. With Garcia sharing the car with the experienced and rapid Tomas Enge for the first time, the driver duo were consistent and quick, and a strong result was looking likely until the car retired.

"There was at least 3.5 litres of fuel left in the car," said Sporting Director Rik Bryan, "we just don't know why we couldn't get it to the engine. That was enough for at least another lap, and I think we will only know for sure what the problem is once we get the car back into the workshop. It was very frustrating, if we had no problems then we could have fought for the GT1 win, the Corvette was very quick but we were going well early in the race."

After Sunday's disappointment at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona, Spain, the series resumes in three weeks at Monza, Italy.