Franck Mailleux posted the fastest LMP2 time of the sole day of official testing in preparation for this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours taking the Signatech-Nissan squad to 13th place overall at La Sarthe on Sunday.

Although Franck has taken part in the last two Le Mans 24 Hours races, this will be his first year in LMP2 and with the support of Nissan, and he has certainly made his intentions clear. A supremely competitive performance at Sebring last month may not have delivered the class win that it promised, but a podium in Franck’s first US race was a magnificent achievement.

Franck showed his experience and determination to post the fastest time in the afternoon session, a 3m42.992s lap which was the best of the team’s 84 completed laps on a busy and productive test day with generally dry weather conditions.

Work centred on aerodynamics testing and tyre work with Dunlop, not only in advance of Le Mans, the jewel in the endurance crown, but also for the next round of the ILMC championship which takes place at Spa-Francorchamps at the end of next week.

With all three drivers gaining valuable experience on-track and the Signatech team continuing to gain experience with its new partnership with Nissan, it was a highly productive and generally trouble-free day for everybody. After the promise of Sebring, the Signatech-Nissan team reasserted their position at the front of the competitive LMP2 class at La Sarthe yesterday, which bodes well for the next ILMC race in Spa and for the main 24 Hours of Le Mans event in June.

Speaking at the end of the busy day, Franck said: “We had a good day. I loved every minute of being out on track with the Signatech-Nissan team on Sunday and re-discovering why the Le Mans 24 Hours race is such an important and exciting part of our racing calendar. We worked a lot on Le Mans preparation with some aero development and tyre evaluation work with Dunlop, which will also be important for Spa. I was very pleased to end the day with the fastest LMP2 time even if we all know very well that reliability is the key factor for any endurance race. We showed at Sebring that we have the outright competitiveness, but we have to make sure that we can translate this into a representative race result. I am sure at Spa and Le Mans we will do just that. There is such a positive spirit in this team and such a will to succeed, which gives us something very special. An enjoyable test day but I cannot wait for the real thing in six weeks from now with the support of the team and my partners Sojasun.”
 

For more information about Franck Mailleux, visit www.franckmailleux.com or www.quadrasports.com