26-year-old Danish driver Christina Nielsen will take on the 24 Hours of Le Mans for a third time this year, we took some time to catch up with her this morning before the second qualifying session of the 2018 edition.
The first qualifying ended with the Ebimotors Porsche 911 RSR eleventh in class, already on the back foot after missing out on most of the official test day.
“There’s way more to come, if I’m honest I don’t think we will be proper sorted before the beginning of the race.” said Nielsen.
“Unfortunately I didn’t get a single lap in and we missed most of the session on sunday at the official testing, so yesterday was sort of our Sunday where we got to test.”
Despite the lack of track time Nielsen remains positive, “It wasn’t even a full day, it was an afternoon and an evening, so a little frustrating to start the week that way, but sometimes it is the most chaotic weekends leading up to the good result, or it ends in a good result.”
For the last two seasons Nielsen has won the GTD class in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3, for 2018 she is racing in the Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, we spoke to her about the differences in the cars and the teams she is working with.
“In America I race a rear engined car, so definitely going from a mid-engined car [Ferrari 488 GT3] to a rear engined car [Porsche 911 GT3 R] is one of the big differences. Now we are driving a mid engined [Porsche 911 RSR] or a little bit further to the front as the Porsche guys are saying.
“Even here this team I’m working with now, I’m working with italians like i was before, so there is definitely some similarities there.
“Everyone is unique and has their own ways, Porsche has some german elements to their work style, which i really enjoy. When you look in to the RSR its very organised and very neat and easy to navigate.”
Check back tomorrow for the second part of this interview with Christina Nielsen.
Original interview by Jean-Paul Hackett, additional words by Vince Pettit.
