Click to go back to front page
Advertisement:

Advertise at Driver Database

Primat and Tinseau fight back for impossible point at the Nurburgring


Geneva-based Harold Primat and co-driver Christophe Tinseau completed a sensational comeback in their Pescarolo 01-Judd to grab eighth in the LMP1 class and a crucial championship point on the last lap of the Nurburgring 1000kms.

The remarkable points finish was achieved despite the pair losing around 23 minutes in the pits when the team were forced to replace the left rear driveshaft after a failure early in the race.

The result means they remain right in the hunt to end the season as the best-placed petrol-powered car as a number of their rivals failed to finish while the Charouz Racing Lola Aston Martin is just one point ahead in the championship standings.

Having qualified 11th Christophe Tinseau took the start and made good progress early in the race to climb to eighth overall. Unfortunately, just after his first scheduled pit stop, the transmission broke as he exited the pit lane and he had to return immediately for the team to carry out repairs.

Primat rejoined the race at the back of the field in 43rd place overall and behind the entire GT2 and GT1 class field. With the race looking like a lost cause, he began the seemingly impossible task of recording a respectable result. Over the next hour and half the combination of determination and consistent lap times proved vital as one by one he reeled in his rivals. By the end of his productive double stint the respectable result had been achieved, handing the car back to Tinseau in a promising 26th position. With the Frenchman continuing the recovery drive, taking advantage as several LMP1 cars hit trouble, it wasn’t long before the Pescarolo was running inside the top 20 overall and top ten in class.

The chance of a miraculous points finished seemed to have ended with ten laps to go though as the duo were still too far adrift of the next LMP1 car. With Primat back behind the wheel for the final stint, an unexpectedly lengthy pit stop for the Rollcentre Pescarolo presented one last chance to cap an extraordinary fight back. On a day that had started with such misfortune, lady luck would reward the team’s efforts. With nearly all of the 1000 kilometres completed, Harold closed in and passed the troubled machine midway through the last lap to grab the final LMP1 point and 19th overall.

Harold Primat: “The car’s been very good all weekend apart from that one problem. It’s very unfortunate as we had the potential to get P6 overall and P2 of the petrol cars which would have been great. We both drove really hard to fight back through the field and got an unexpected bonus to get the point at the end. It’s not the result we were hoping for at the beginning of the weekend but it shows that in motor racing you should never give up and that is the attitude I always take. We saw how hard the team worked to make the repairs and we wanted to push just as hard in the race to say thank you. In the championship, the fight to be the best petrol car is still on. We need a strong, trouble-free race in the last round at Silverstone and then we have got a chance.”

Christophe Tinseau: “We don’t have much luck at the Nurburgring. The gearbox failed here last year and this year the driveshaft! I felt it break as I left the pit lane and initially thought it was a wheel nut. It’s a shame as after it was fixed we had good pace and could’ve easily challenged in the top six.”

Henri Pescarolo: “It’s the second time we’ve had a driveshaft break this year and we don’t know why as it not a problem we have ever experienced before. But the team did a good job to make the repairs quickly and both drivers fought back really well to claim a point, which is very pleasing.”

Published: 2008-08-18 00:00:00

View driver's profile pages:
» Christophe Tinseau
» Harold Primat

Members

Email address:

Password



You need to be logged in to submit or edit new information and to send in photos. The signup process is quick, free and rather painless.

Sign up now
Forgot your password?

Partners and sponsors

 
 
 
 
 
 
» Used cars US
» Car Insurance
» Car Insurance
» Seat Leon

The running and continueous updating of Driver Database would not be possible without these sponsors. If you would like to display your brand at this site then the following link would be your first stop:

» Become a DriverDB sponsor

Top 2008 race winners

1Craig Baird32
2Graham Carroll21
Kyle Busch21
4Jack Lemvard19
5Frédéric Vervisch18
Donny Schatz18
7Valtteri Bottas17
8Nigel Moore16
Carl Edwards16
Earl Bamber16
Jan Magnussen16
12Gabriel Chaves15
Devin Jones15
Toon Rutgers15
Jamie Whincup15
16Wayne Boyd14
Daniel Ricciardo14
Ivan Utrera14
Philip Morris14
Tony Rivera14
This list also includes series that span over the new year (i.e. 2007-08 championships).


Driverdb.com blog

News, updates, bugs, tired ramblings, small breakdowns and other stuff related to maintaining, adding and expanding Driver Database.

Driver Database is huge
December 2 2008
I started this site in 2004 with about 100 pages related to the Formula 1 drivers of the 2004 season. Now, more than four years later it has grown a bit. How big is it, you ask? Total number of pages: 210744 (at Dec 01) Size of text in database: 47.5 MB While 47.5 MB might not sound like much...

» Read more

       
 Pierre Selander Christijan Albers Alexander Haegermark Carlos Huertas Benjamin Lariche Ho-Pin Tung 
 
Page generated in 0.2331 seconds