Le Mans Series

Gearbox woes bring end to Creation’s bid for glory

© Planetlemans

At just less than half distance in today’s shortened 1,000kms of Istanbul (a 4 hour race instead of 6 hours), the Creation team’s challenge for honours was brought to an end due to gearbox problems. Nicolas Minassian had led the race in the Creation CA06/H for much of the opening hour, trading the lead in a tight and exciting battle with the Pescarolo Judd of Emmanuel Collard. The British team had made two pit stops within this time - an early one on lap 6 for slick tyres, and a planned fuel and tyre stop on lap 40.
Just over ten laps later Minassian reported on the radio that he had problems with 5th and 6th gears and, losing 10s a lap over the ensuing few laps, he was brought into the pits at 1318 hrs. Although the fault was quickly identified by the team, with only two hours of the race remaining, there was not enough time to repair the gearbox.

Nicolas Minassian: "You always learn something when you race and, even though it’s very disappointing, we know we have a very fast car. I have to congratulate the team for making such a fantastic car. We still have lots of work to do but it’s always nice to be at the front and you can show everyone that we can challenge them. We will challenge them. It’s a shame for Felipe and Beppe that they didn’t drive as they did a fantastic job in practice with very little time in the car. Now we are going to go testing and they will drive lots more so we will be completely ready for Spa."

Beppe Gabbiani: "Nic was fantastic today and I’m happy the car is very fast. With power steering [which wasn’t fitted here in Istanbul] and traction control we can be a minimum of half a second a lap quicker and win races. The team is very good and Nic is incredibly quick. Felipe and I can also be quick in this car."

Felipe Ortiz: "It is very, very disappointing but obviously we are encouraged by the speed of the car. I think, based on our times in the free practices and on a dry track, we would have easily finished second and probably a lap ahead of the third placed car. It’s very frustrating because of that. I see no reason why we should not be having a podium finish, or a win, at Spa. We will be testing in two weeks in order to get more potential out of the car, but right now it’s a big mixture of feelings."