French endurance racer Franck Mailleux and the Signatech-Nissan LMP2 team have today carried out the first practice sessions for this weekend’s 80^th Le Mans 24 Hours race, but a number of issues throughout the day made for a hampered day of running.. 

Wednesday’s running was divided into two sessions with a four hour afternoon session used for free practice and this evening’s two hour used as the first of three opportunities to qualify for the race.

Franck started in buoyant mood after a positive official test day just over a week ago with his initial run in first practice used to carry our endurance runs to evaluate the Dunlop tyres. Franck’s immediate comments were that Signatech-Nissan’s #23 Oreca 03 was competitive and handling well.

Unfortunately, Franck’s team-mates Olivier Lombard and Jordan Tresson both experienced incidents on their respective runs which required the team to carry out repairs in the box. The team checked the power steering and changed the pneumatic gearshift system, as well as the alternator, which restricted running to 42 laps, but the team was generally happy with the balance of the car.

Some steering rack issues in the evening session meant that Franck could not capitalise on his run with new tyres late in the session, but after a swift steering rack change thanks to the excellent work from the Signatech-Nissan team, Franck was able to get a final out lap at the close of the session just to check the car. The team now heads into Thursday’s two sessions with over 50 laps of data from today as they look for a more consistent day on Thursday.

Franck Mailleux said: “It’s been a bit of a frustrating start for me after a few issues during the day have prevented me from getting much track time. It was always planned for my team-mates Olivier and Jordan to have more laps today but it’s not been a straight-forward day. This evening’s two hour session was affected by steering problems so I couldn’t push to get the benefit from the new tyres but this is Le Mans and it’s better to have these issues on Wednesday. The team worked really hard to replace the steering rack and with just 2m30 left on the clock, I was able to complete an out lap just to check the car. Although a difficult day, there is plenty of upside because the car felt competitive earlier and I think we have plenty of potential when we get back on track tomorrow. We know what we have to do and the team is motivated to get the best qualifying position we can.”