The second round of the European Le Mans Series was held in Italy, on the legendary Imola circuit.
Imola is a circuit known for its technicality and tricky chicanes and it did not deny its reputation. As early as the collective practices on Thursday, many cars were caught out.
During the various practices sessions (collectives and free), the Oreca #30 of DUQUEINE Team was able to avoid the pitfalls and collect a lot of data for Saturday's qualifying.
Once again, Reshad DE GERUS took part in this qualifying session. Despite a yellow flag at the start, the Oreca#30, with the young man from Reunion at the wheel, was able to set a very good time, only a few tenths behind the leading trio. This shows, once again, that this year's grid is very competitive.
Memo ROJAS, who started 10th on the grid, did a very good first lap, finishing in 7th place on the line. But as in the Le Mans Cup race on Saturday, the safety car was quickly deployed.
After a succession of collisions and cars in the bins, the race was restarted. A new Full Course Yellow trapped the #30 which had just left the pits. Memo found itself in 12th place. An aggressive race was then set up to try to regain the lost places.
Reshad then took the wheel of the car to complete his double stint. He did not stop attacking and fighting. After an hour and a half on a similar pace to the leading drivers, Reshad and the Oreca #30 were fifth.
Richard was unlucky at the start of his stint when he was involved in a race incident, fortunately for the DUQUEINE Team, no damage was done. After yet another FCY, Richard fought hard and managed to cross the line in 6th position. A very good progression compared to Castellet. Of course, there is still a lot of work to be done before arriving at Le Mans, but the DUQUEINE Team will arrive, for sure, more armed than ever.
Memo ROJAS : "P6 at Imola today. A bitter sweet feeling as we had a chance to finish close tod the podium. The Full Course Yellow impacted our strategy. We were a bit unlucky at times. Anyway, we are getting stronger and stronger and we are ready for the 24h of Le Mans. "
Reshad DE GERUS: "We’ve made good progress since the start of the season but we still need to improve to fight for victory
We have three weeks of hard work ahead of us before Le Mans to get as ready as possible!"
Richard BRADLEY : "P6 today after a slightly mental race which had a bit of everything!! Pace was good and unlucky with some FCY timing but good progress. At the end of the race, I managed to move up in the standings.
We did a very good job and now we are all focused on the next race, which is the most beautiful one, the 24h of Le Mans.
