Atlantic Motorsport Porsche 919 #002 finished P8 in the 8 hours of Silverstone.
After 253 laps, Matthieu Decrop and Eddy Gustina, finished on a brilliant 8th place.
Atlantic Motorsport #002 LMP1 8 hours of Silverstone RACE REPORT
Team manager: Matthieu Decrop
There we are, at the 8 hours of Silverstone. Our car is on probation from previous race at Interlagos where we were given 12 DT penalties. We have one goal in mind, finish the race without trouble of any kind and get rid of that probation once and for all.
It has been decided before that we were going to complete stints of 2 hours. We are not sure rather or not to trust weather forecast and considering we are only 2 drivers, 4 hours would have been too long under these conditions. But in the end, who knows what the race will bring to us?
Eddy gets his hands dirty and takes the wheel for qualifications and then start of the race but weather is not compliant and ruins it. The only opening with a dry racing line we had were the 2 first laps. Then, rain made it impossible to do good enough lap times. We end up 7th.
Here we go, 8 hours of Silverstone finally starts! Straight away, we decide to let INSPED Racing Team through. That allows us to focus on our driving and let a bit of pressure off. We are 8th and waiting for our penalties. 9th lap and the first drive through of a long serie is given to us. 11 drive through later … down to 16th position and one lap behind Racing Mood Sim LMP1 car at lap 16. We can now focus on the rest of the race.
At lap 18, first incident of the race to deplore. A misjudgment makes us hit the wall hard after having to avoid a GT3 car at turn 9. Code 80 is announced. We end up in the pits with 500 seconds to repair the front wing but finally make it back on track with 7 laps difference with Flag-to-Flag Red currently in 7th place. We are last.
An hour and a half have passed, Eddy is recovering lost places among the GT3 field and gets by Team Vires lmp1 at lap 41. They apparently had troubles and stayed in the pits for quite a long time. It is now time to pit ourselves and wear HARD tyres as the track dries up more and more. We now aim to get passed the LMP2 field.
Two hours and a half in the race, Eddy gives the car to me at lap 76. Exit of the pits, we are 14th with 7 lmp2 cars in front of us. Plan remains the same, get to the end without incidents.
Well, it has been difficult to get it settled. My first corners are terrible.. I really soon get caught by driving too much on the wet with hard compounds and go into a drift at turn 6 of my out lap.
Soon after, it becomes a constant cut track party on exit of fast corners and quite a few resulting Stop and Go’s. I go down to 15th position. It is lap 87.
Finally, i get the hang of the car and manage to find a comfortable pace. I get use to traffic and start to recover from my previous mistakes. The fun starts here. Everything is going relatively smooth. The race is being very pleasant.
And yet another incident during my stint right before giving the car back to Eddy. It is lap 155, Team RGPL lmp2 car is overtaking a GT3 car out of the first chicane, I stand right behind him and aim for overtake but he loses grip and does not take off as fast as an lmp2 would do here. It finally happens, I slightly hit his rear bumper and the rear wing flies away. Really sorry to them.. Our car is very slightly damaged but will never go as quick as before, yet it is still drivable.
Last driver swap. Eddy takes the car again at lap 158 until the end of the race. Track conditions are definitely better than his first stint and he is taking more pleasure driving the car.
Team Vires gets by us at the exit of the pits. We are 9th.
A final incident sends us to pits for repair for another 600 seconds. It will be our last contact during that race.
Back to 11th place, Eddy will get 8th back and end the race completing the 253rd lap for our car.
