Le Mans
Roman fulfilled a lifelong dream as he participated in the 92nd running of the famed and fabled 24h of Le Mans June 15 - 15. Running in the LMP2 class with past Le Man's winner, Portugal-based APR racing, and paired with seasoned veterans Olli Caldwell and Matthias Kaiser; the team had the pace to run vie for the win, but an incident in the early stages of the event, had them settle for 8th in LMP2.
The team was firing on all cylinders out of the gate, attacking the circuit and making significant progress. Unfortunately, a gust of wind tipped the APR machine into a slide, which caused it to brush the wall and resulted in a broken front-left steering arm. The crew worked with precision and speed to get the car repaired and back on track, but the consequence was the loss of two laps on the leaders. Falling two laps down to P15, safety cars and other on-track incidents, the timing could have worked better in their favour to regain lost time and fight for a win. A skillful effort by De Angelis, Caldwell, and Kaiser saw them make up positions during the 24-hour race distance to finish 8th after tumultuous weather conditions pushed the engineers, crew and drivers to the limits. However, it was a great result, disappointing with their promise and speed.
Quote from : algarveproracingteam.com:
Roman De Angelis (#25 Algarve Pro Racing ORECA 07-Gibson LMP2): "We knew that because the LMP2 class is so competitive, filled with high-calibre drivers, it would take some lucky breaks to get the laps that were lost in the opening stint back. We simply didn't have those opportunities and ended two laps behind the eventual winner, but we can be satisfied at our pace was comparable and everyone executed well.
"My first 24 Hours of Le Mans has been an amazing, insane experience. prepared well to ensure I did the best possible job for Algarve Pro Racing, but there's only so much you can do. For example, only one of my nine hours in the car was dry and it was a completely different beast in the rain. I r n on a full range of tyres, including slicks on a wet track, and that's something you just wouldn't test. I really enjoyed the whole experience."
For the full race recap from the APR team please visit - https://www.algarveproracingteam.com/disappointed-algarve-pro-racing-edges-p8-result-from-tumultuous-24-hours-of-le-mans/
