The penultimate round of the 2015 World Endurance Championship (WEC) saw the #43 Morgan EVO, powered by the Judd Power designed and supplied HK engine, clinch a fifth top 5 finish in six races and the team’s second best result of the year with fourth position in the LMP2 class.
Despite difficult weather conditions, Benoit Morand and his “guys” once again took advantage of the reliability of their car and the consistency of their drivers on the Shanghai International Circuit. Oliver Webb, Pierre Ragues and Chris Cumming gained experience of the track through the practice sessions (7th in FP1, 5th in FP2, 8th in FP3), before qualifying fourth in the class on Saturday afternoon.
Benoit Morand, the Team Manager: “We performed great in qualifying, as great as we did in Fuji, Oliver and Pierre did a good job. We set the fastest time by a Morgan chassis at Shanghai. We experienced the same situation as Fuji, starting the race without testing the cut slick and wet tyres. So we used the cut slicks and things went good, we maintained P3 for quite a while. We took the same option after two stints, when Pierre got in the car but he let us know that it was raining too much so the wet tyres were necessary. Once they were mounted, we were faster but we could not take advantage of the wet tyres due to the two FCYs and we even lost about two minutes. But during the following stints, Oliver was one of three quickest LMP2 drivers on the track. When Chris took the wheel to finish the race, we mounted slicks and he drove perfectly. With this fourth position, we are climbing up to fifth in the class provisional standings. So we have a double aim for the Bahrain event : making it again on the podium after our second-place finish at Spa last May, and targeting P4 in the final standings in the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP2 teams.”
After two events in the Far East, TEAM SARD MORAND will fly to the Middle East for the 6 Hours of Bahrain, the final round of the 2015 WEC, to be run on Saturday November 21.