[18-05-2013]
FRANCK MAILLEUX DISAPPOINTED WITH SIXTH ON GRID BUT HOPING TO JOIN PODIUM BATTLE
 Franck Mailleux and the Morand Racing team will line up in sixth place on the Imola grid this afternoon after a tough qualifying session for the Frenchman this morning.
Franck and the team did not have the smoothest preparation for today’s session after Friday’s second practice was red-flagged before Franck could embark on his qualifying simulation run on new tyres.
More flag trouble affected Franck this morning as yellow flags at the start prevented him from mounting a quick lap at the start. He encountered traffic on his subsequent laps, as well as making a mistake, so he couldn’t extract the full potential from the Morand Racing Morgan Judd LMP2 car.
Nonetheless, Franck will be preparing to make up places in the opening stint of this afternoon’s 3 Hours of Imola race and to show the sort of front-running pace that he so masterfully demonstrated at Silverstone.
It has been a sunny day at Imola but there is a chance of some rain this afternoon so Franck and the team will be preparing for any eventuality and hoping to deploy another excellent strategy to jump up into the podium positions later on.
Franck said: “Sixth place is not where we want to be qualifying but it isn’t the end of the world. It was a tricky session after we weren’t able to get a new tyre run yesterday afternoon, so we were going into the qualifying a bit unprepared. We had yellow flags at the start and a lot of traffic. I also made a mistake on one of quick laps, going long at the chicane, so we couldn’t get everything out of the Morand Racing Morgan Judd LMP2. From sixth place, we will be looking to get a good start and to make sure that we are in a position to challenge for the podium places. There are some quick cars out there this weekend so we know it will be a tough battle but I am confident in our package and we’re ready to fight.”
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