The 25th Goodwood Festival of Speed began yesterday and at this year’s event Porsche is celebrating their 70th anniversary.
French driver Kevin Estre is driving the factory Porsche 911 RSR ‘Pink Pig’ that he drove to victory in the GTE Pro class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans last month, talking at the event he said what winning on home soil meant to him and looked ahead to the next round of the FIA World Endurance Championship at Silverstone.
“It was crazy, we had a good start after my teammate Michael [Christensen] had a good qualifying session, putting us into P2 and helping Porsche to lockout the front row.” said Estre of this years 24 hours of Le Mans.
“We did the start of the race, and everything went well. We took the lead after four hours of racing and kept it until the end of the race. It was just a great weekend, having this special livery [Pink Pig] and with so many fans cheering for us, we were so proud to be part of this, especially on the 70th birthday of the Porsche factory, it was just perfect.”
Credit: Porsche A.G.
Reflecting on what it was like to be a Frenchman winning at Le Mans, Estre said, “It is special, it’s my only race in France each year at the moment, this year I had a lot of family and friends coming to the race.
“When you hear the national anthem, and watch the army bringing the flag to the track by helicopter, it brings big emotions. It is the biggest race in the world, so, there is pressure at the beginning, but it is a really special feeling to win there.”.
He continued to explain what it is like to be a part of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, “I’ve watched this event since I was a kid, I always wanted to come here, even as a spectator. Now Porsche has given me the opportunity to drive our Le Mans car here; it is fantastic. To be here with so many iconic Porsches and crazy drivers, who have won so many races for the brand in the last 70 years.”.
Credit: Goodwood – Drew Gibson
Looking ahead to the next round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, the 6 Hours of Silverstone, Estre said “I really like the circuit, it looks really quick this year with the new surface, so I think it is going to be a lot of fun. It is a challenging track, and it is going to be tough on the tyres, especially when we have to double stint.
It is the first race after Le Mans, Michael and I are leading the championship, we finished in P2 at Spa, and won at Le Mans, so now we have to continue the good work and perform well throughout the rest of the championship.”.
Estre will be driving a variety of legendary Porsche cars at the venerable Sussex hill-climb over the weekend, the 6 Hours of Silverstone takes place on 19 August 2018.
