Latest news with #SebastienBourdais
RNZ News
13-06-2025
- Automotive
- RNZ News
Earl Bamber to start from two on 24 Hours of Le Mans grid
The Cadillac Hertz of Earl Bamber, Sebastien Bourdais and Jenson Button, in action during qualifying for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France. June 11, 2025. Photo: AFP New Zealander Earl Bamber will start from two on the grid for the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, with Cadillac locking out the front row in qualifying. Britain's Alex Lynn secured pole position, setting a best time of three minutes 23.166 seconds in the number 12 Team Jota Cadillac at the Sarthe circuit Bamber putting the sister 38 car alongside and 0.167 slower. Bamber has won the race twice, in 2015 and 2017 with Porsche. Fellow Kiwi Brendon Hartley, who has won the event three times, will start from 10 on the grid after team-mate Sebastien Buemi locked up the Toyota Gazoo car and drove into the gravel and was not able to finish the qualifier Lynn shares his car with compatriot Will Stevens and Frenchman Norman Nato while Bamber's teammates are 2009 Formula One world champion Jenson Button and French four-times Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais. "I can't tell you how much I wanted this," said Lynn, who missed out on pole last year by a mere 0.138, over the team radio. "One tenth last year hurt a lot. "I'm truly honoured to be able to put in a performance like that in front of everyone and deliver for Cadillac in the way they deserve," he added after getting out of the car. "This is a magical circuit and this is a special feeling. I can't describe it. We will enjoy this tonight, have a good sleep and re-set." GM-owned Cadillac are the first American marque to take outright pole at Le Mans since Ford in 1967. The number five Porsche Penske was third fastest, after threatening to take pole, with France's Julien Andlauer, Denmark's Michael Christensen and France's Mathieu Jaminet. The number 15 BMW qualified in fourth place with Belgian Dries Vanthoor, Swiss-Italian Raffaele Marciello and Danish former F1 driver Kevin Magnussen. Defending champions Ferrari, outright winners for the past two years, had Italian Antonio Fuoco, Denmark's Nicklas Nielsen and Spaniard Miguel Molina in seventh place in last year's winning car number 50. The 93rd edition of the race starts on Sunday at 2am NZT. - Reuters/RNZ Sport
Yahoo
04-02-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Gloves Came off at IMSA Rolex 24 at Daytona and the Result Was Strong Ratings
Fans need to see the competitive passion if IMSA wants to hit top dead center with some real torque. When Sebastien Bourdais lambasted IMSA for its post-race demotion of Tower Motorsports from first place in LMP2 over a skid-plate violation, he broke ranks. There's no racing show like one with passion, whether it's participants talking about the rules, the competition, beating the other guy or the other company. It's time to welcome IMSA back to the big leagues thanks to a raucous Rolex 24 at Daytona and some TV ratings to match. At the year's biggest WeatherTech Championship race, some drivers, teams and manufacturers spoke their minds afterward instead of kowtowing to IMSA's one-for-all party line. Instead of corporate speak, they let their opinions fly, which is what happens in Formula 1, NASCAR and IndyCar. Whether it's throwing punches, verbal jousting or a manufacturer like Ford not taking the usual line, fans need to see the competitive passion if a series wants to hit top dead center with some real torque. It was not enough to have a deep, high-tech field, with drivers and teams to match at the Rolex. When Tommy Milner called out BMW and its driver Augusto Farfus for questionable team tactics that stank, well, you could see the fumes as well as Milner's single finger salute. When Sebastien Bourdais lambasted IMSA for its post-race demotion of Tower Motorsports from first place in LMP2 over a skid-plate violation, he broke ranks. The Porsche Penske Motorsport team was demoted from victory for a similar violation at Watkins Glen in 2023, but that was followed by a carefully worded media release. The Rolex had an impressive fan turnout, international viewing numbers topping two million on YouTube and more-than-respectable TV ratings that averaged 901,000 viewers on NBC despite catawampus jumps between the main channel and Peacock as race fans got the usual pitch designed to generate paid streaming. Including a long-running online radio show, if the numbers in all these electronic realms are to go up, the more passion from participants the better. The biggest breach of protocol came from the biggest announcement. Ford is back in play at the top level of sports prototype racing with its first major commitment in decades. But the folks at the Blue Oval, led by Chairman Bill Ford, skipped the usual niceties. Instead, Ford's new chairman is beginning to sound like the second coming of The Deuce, the incomparable Henry Ford II, whose leadership led to the GT40, Mk II and Mk IV. 'We're coming back to beat Ferrari at Le Mans,' said the current chairman. He not only broke protocol by tweaking a competitor. There was not even a car or team in the room. He did not mention IMSA or the Rolex 24, much less an LMDh. The leadership at IMSA by Jim France, the board chairman, and John Doonan, the president, can understand Ford's point of view. After all, the current WeatherTech Championship that they have expertly built relies in no small part on a strong relationship with Le Mans. That sounds a bit like the preceding American Le Mans Series, does it not? There's a deeper historical precedent between the current GTP and the version that put IMSA on the worldwide map in the 1980s. Inarguably, the original GTP cars were as technically sophisticated as the machinery in any other major series in the world. The current LMDh hybrids can stake a similar claim to technical sophistication. The only remaining step is to beat the custom-built Hypercars such as the Ferrari 499P at the Circuit de la Sarthe. The emergence of a rivalry between Chevy's Corvette and Ford's Mustang in GTD is a tribute to IMSA growing its GT classes, albeit the GT3 category is not exactly home-grown. That rivalry is now augmented with some blood in the water around BMW and Milner's new t-shirt featuring a single digit salute that is being sold for charity. Combined with the hybrid prototypes, IMSA stands with any other major series in the world when it comes to competition, especially at the major endurance events, which comprise half the schedule. But there's no racing show like one with passion, whether it's participants talking about the rules, the competition, beating the other guy or the other company. The new developments at Daytona and the following Ford announcement in Charlotte are a refreshing break from a cozy relationship that exists between the sanctioning body and its competing manufacturers, which all pay a pretty penny to participate. This 'pay-to-play' partnership has sometimes made IMSA seem like Mr. Rogers neighborhood. Let's hope the cardigan sweater and the gloves continue to come off as a promising season and future continues to unfold.
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Daytona 24 Class Winner Stripped Of Win 3 Days After The Race Ended
The number eight Tower Motorsports Oreca-Gibson 2025 Daytona 24 Hour LMP2 class winning car, driven by Sebastien Bourdais, Job van Uitert, Sebastian Alvarez, and John Farano, has been unceremoniously stripped of its victory and kicked to the back of the class after a technical infraction uncovered by the series on Wednesday. After an early-race crash pushed Tower down the order the team clawed its way back to what was, for three days, a hard-fought victory for the storybooks. During the series' lengthy post-race inspection process it uncovered that the Tower car had worn its underfloor plank beyond the maximum allowance and was thus disqualified from its class win, reports Racer. The team had to give up the trophy, and each of the drivers had to give back their victory Rolex, as they were now the property of United Autosports and its drivers Nick Boulle, Ben Hanley, Oliver Jarvis, and Garnet Patterson. Tower appealed IMSA's decision, offering that it did not willingly violate the technical regulations, though this was quickly swatted down, because a worn plank is a worn plank, regardless of how it happened. It's pretty cut and dried. 'Tower Motorsports is deeply disappointed by IMSA's decision to penalize our No. 8 LMP2 entry following post-race technical inspection at the 24 Hours of Daytona. Our team strongly contests this ruling and maintains that we did not intentionally violate any technical regulations,' Tower team manager Rick Capone wrote in a statement. 'The infraction cited by IMSA relates to excessive wear on the skid block, an issue that can naturally occur over the course of an intense endurance race due to variables outside of a team's direct control. The No. 8 car has consistently passed technical inspection throughout the event and in previous competitions without issue. We firmly believe that this outcome does not reflect any wrongdoing or competitive advantage on our part.' Whether advantageous or not, the rules are the rules and sometimes that's how the cookie crumbles. — Sébastien Bourdais (@BourdaisOnTrack) January 29, 2025 According to team driver Bourdais, who is already in Dubai to test his WEC full season ride with Cadillac, the car's ride height damper failed over the course of the race allowing the car to sink lower than normal, and in the process the skid plank was worn beyond the allowable five millimeters. Newly promoted victors United Autosport were understandably excited by the late announcement of its promotion to victory. 'We came to Daytona with one very clear goal and we have achieved it,' said Richard Dean, United Autosports CEO. 'To win the Rolex 24 At Daytona any year is pretty special, but to win it only a few months after celebrating victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours makes it an extra-special moment. Zak and I would like to thank the entire team for their dedication and commitment. We can all be very proud of what we have achieved.' Motorsport is cruel sometimes, but for every take there is a little give. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
