Strakka sprints up 35 places in 6 hours

It’s been a dramatic start to the Le Mans 24 Hours for Strakka Racing, after an oil leak in the transmission prevented our Honda Performance Development ARX-03a lining up 7th on the grid. Instead, as the 55 other competitors started the race at 15.00 local time, we were in our pit garage making repairs – only joining the race 22 minutes later and six laps down.

With great fighting spirit, Jonny Kane did a fantastic triple stint to bring us back from 56th position to 45th – consistently setting the fastest privateer lap times. We were fuel-efficient too, leading the Michelin Green X Challenge at one stage.

Jonny swapped with Danny after two and a half hours – and he continued the charge up the leader, averaging 3min 34sec lap times as he moved up to 21st.

A big accident involving Anthony Davidson (#8 Toyota) and Piergiuseppe Perazzini (#81 AF Corse Ferrari) brought out a long Safety Car period for the crash barriers to be repaired. Thankfully both drivers are reported to be okay.

Nick Leventis then replaced Danny to take the re-start, with the aim of taking the team into the night.