Julien Canal, Patrick Bornhauser and Pedro Lamy combined to win LMGTE Am (Photo Credit: V Images)
Larbre Competition left the 2012 running of the Le Mans 24 Hours delighted as they secured their third successive victory in the LMGTE Am class.
The #50 Corvette C6.R driven by Julien Canal, Patrick Bornhauser and Pedro Lamy qualified in eighth position ahead of the race but soon began to work their way through the opposition following the start. By the third hour the #50 had moved to third position and would soon be challenging for the lead as darkness defended over Circuit de La Sarthe.
During the twilight hours LaRbre battled it out with ISMA Performance Matmut squad whose #67 Porsche continued to push hard. Ultimately the Corvette power was too much for the ISMA squad and Julien Canal would take his third consecutive Le Mans victory with Larbre, while Bornhauser achieved his second and Lamy took his first with the team.
The #70 Labre Corvette would take a strong finish after tyre issues held them back during qualifying. While the race wasn’t a straight forward run Jean–Philippe Belloc, Pascal Gibon and Christophe Bourret brought the car home in one piece.
Jack Leconte, Team Owner explained that the team were working hard during the conclusion off the race as they kept a close eye on the ISMA Porsche, “the engineers and I calculated the time each IMSA driver had spent in their car and worked out that Anthony Pons had to return to the cockpit to complete his minimum running.”
“Nevertheless we asked Pedro to push during his final stint and he did a great job. When we had a safe margin of around six minutes I decided to replace Pedro with our local driver, Julien Canal, and let him take the chequered flag at his home race.”
Patrick Bornhauser was happy with the efforts of the team back on the pitwall despite admitting it was a stressful finish to the endurance race.“The pitwall did a great job and controlled the IMSA car through our strategy.”
After an enduring time at the 2011 Le Mans at the wheel of a LMP1 car Pedro Lamy admitted it was ‘the perfect way to return to Le Mans’.
Julien Canal revealed his honour to take the chequered flag for the team and thanked the team for the three victories it has achieved in the last three years.
The result achieved by the team moves them to the top of the FIA World Endurance Championship’s GTE Am battle which will resume at Silverstone on 25 August.
