CHRYSLER TEAM ORECA
Photo Coutersy:ACO
CHRYSLER FIFTH AFTER OPENING DAY OF QUALIFYING
Chrysler Team ORECA set fifth fastest time in qualifying for the 69th edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours, Olivier Beretta setting a time of three minutes 36.155s in the Chrysler LMP that he shares with Karl Wendlinger and Pedro Lamy.
It was the first time that the Monegasque had ever driven a prototype around the 13.6km Le Mans circuit having missed much of the trials session on May 6 with minor problems that prevented the car from running.
"I am very happy when you consider that we did not run very much in the pre-race trials," said Beretta. "I have never driven a prototype around here before, so I had no reference points on the track for braking which made it very difficult."
Yannick Dalmas, four-time winner at Le Mans, set tenth fastest time in the second Chrysler LMP, shared with Stephane Sarrazin and Franck Montagny and believed that he can go faster.
"We just need to adjust our car a little bit," said the Frenchman. "Unfortunately I had much traffic on my qualifying lap. I think there is more to come from the car and from myself. Perhaps I can try again tomorrow night.
Hugues de Chaunac, Director of the ORECA team, said: "I think that we are just showing how much work we have done on our performance and, hopefully, the reliability too. We can only test the performance during the trials, but we are hoping for the reliability. Olivier says that he can go faster, and could break the 3m35 barrier but we are satisfied. We know our level and we will concentrate on the race set uptomorrow."
The third Chrysler LMP, driven by Seiji Ara, Masahiko Kondo and Ni Amorim, set the 16th fastest time.
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