Franck Mailleux scored a second consecutive class podium by finishing last weekend's 1000kms of Hungaroring as his Signature Plus team finished third out of the participating LMP1 cars with their Dunlop-shod Lola Aston Martin. The result extends the team's solid second season in the Le Mans Championship and elevates Franck to third in the drivers' overall standings.

Franck, looking back are you pleased with the result from Hungary?
"In terms of the LMP1 result, it was good to score another podium and to boost our points standings. I am now third overall in the drivers' standings which is great, especially when comparing to where we were at the same point last year. It really shows the progress we have made as a team. Looking at Hungary overall and it was disappointing not to finish in the top three overall. The circuit characteristics really played to the strengths of the LMP2 cars but I think our package was definitely capable of finishing in the top three without the technical problems that we faced. "

Without the technical problems, could you have fought for outright victory?
"When we started to experience the technical problems we were running in second place only behind the Peugeot that soon had problems of its own. So without our own dramas, I am sure we could have fought for the outright win but that is the nature of endurance racing. We have not encountered many technical difficulties as serious as the ones we had in Hungary and it is a testament to the strength of the team that we were able to get back out on track as quickly as we did. We lost 45 minutes of running, more than 20 laps, and we were still able to finish 23rd and claim an LMP1 podium, so it could have been much worse.."

Run us through the problems...
"I took over from Pierre at around the halfway point of the race. Just a few laps after I took over, I started to feel a lack of power from the car so I came straight back into the pits where we discovered not only a problem with the battery but also a problem with one of the alternator pulleys. To change that required the entire rear-end of the car to be taken out and that takes a lot of time. When you are stuck in the pits for that long, it feels like forever, and when I got back out on track we were down in 30th place. From then on, it was just a case of getting the car home. The car and tyres were quite competitive in my stints and I was able to make up quite a few positions. It was just frustrating that the end result did not show our real potential. Finishing in the top three overall would have been another nice addition to my CV but these things happen and I am sure people have seen what I am capable of achieving. The final race of the season takes place in Silverstone in a few weeks time so I hope we can finish our second season in LMS on a high note and another podium."