Carlin Motorsport driver, Will Power drove two superb qualifying sessions today at the world famous Le Mans circuit, one wet, one dry, placing him on row’s two and one respectively for the races tomorrow.
The versatile Aussie driver made the most of the wet first qualifying session of which his group was the second to run.ÿ It was the first time the World Series by Renault cars had the opportunity to use wet tyres this season and it certainly showed; many drivers were caught our by the slippery conditions and yellow flags were the order of the morning.ÿ Will, no novice to wet weather, threw down a lap good enough for provisional P2 before an eventual red flag stopped the session with 4 minutes left to run.
Power was first out of the pit-lane on the re-start and placed a time of 1min41.964sec on his first flying lap promoting him to provisional pole.ÿ Enrico Toccocello rained on his parade however, when his 1min41.648sec lap demoted Will to second place and fourth on the grid, just before the chequered flag dropped.
After much debate in the four week break since round three in Valencia, it was decided that the qualifying system would be modified.ÿ The field would still be split in two, but according to the championship standings after the previous round rather than car numbers. However, if the top five runners’ average speed is within .3 of a percent then the sessions would be merged according to time rather than split into rows according to which group was fastest – which was the case in session one.
The rain clouds dispersed in time for a dry, and far less confusing, qualifying two. Will’s group was first out and he quickly showed that it didn’t matter what the weather was doing when he laid down a lap of 1min24.034sec for provisional pole.ÿ The number 4 car dove into the pits for new rubber with 5 minutes remaining and although he didn’t better his time, he wasn’t challenged for his P1 slot for the remainder of the session.
Although it eventuated that session two was faster, the .3 percent rule didn’t come into play and Will retained his front row grid position, and will start the pit-stop race tomorrow from P2 beside Pole man Robert Kubica.
“Hopefully I’ll get some good starts tomorrow, it’s important to get away well for the sprint race and it’s always great to start from the front row. I haven’t had such a good start to the season in terms of points and race results, although I’ve been pretty strong in qualifying, so hopefully I can turn good positions into good results tomorrow” said Will.
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WILL POWER WINS AT LE MANS!
Aussie, Will Power claimed his first World Series by Renault win at the famous Le Mans circuit today!ÿ Power broke his two year race win drought in front of a huge crowd of 90,000 and effectively led from lights to flag in the 27 lap second race after snatching the start from pole man Robert Kubica to lead into first corner.
After a solid fourth place finish in the sprint race this morning, Will was keen to get a good start from second place and was confident his car had the edge to make him the 7th winner in the World Series in as many races. Following a three car first corner incident, Will lead Frenchman Eric Salignon and Pole Kubica behind the safety car for the opening two laps, and after an uneventful re-start Will kept a healthy lead over Salignon until Cram Competition pulled him in to pit on lap eight, extending Will’s lead over Kubica in second to 3.139 seconds.
The Carlin team chose Will’s pit-stop window wisely and the number four car dove into the pits on lap 11, one lap after second placed Kubica, feeding him back out on to the track in fifth place just ahead of Kubica and Salignon who were the first of those who had already pitted.ÿ
Power was in third place with 13 laps remaining and when leaders Colin Fleming and Adrian Valles inevitably had to make their stops; Will was once again leading the race and steadily extending his gap over Kubica until he crossed the line to take his first win on lap 27!
“I was concentrating on beating Kubica off the start, and I knew I’d have a good chance of winning if I could.” Explained an exuberant Power.ÿ
“The boys were great today in the pit-stop and my engineer had the car set up well so I knew I could push hard to extend my lead if I needed to.ÿ It’s great to get my first win since leaving Australia to race in Europe; it’s been a long time coming.”
Will’s fourth and first places means that he jumps up from 14th to 4th in the championship with 34 points, one point behind third place Tristan Gommendy.
The next outing for the WSR is next weekend at the Bilbao Street Circuit in Spain where rounds 8 & 9 of the World Series will take place.
