Pippa Mann crash damage “mainly cosmetic”

The accident occurred 45mins into the session, when the #63 DCR-Honda exited Turn 4 completely sideways and backed into the outside wall.

Cannon explained: “Pippa was in a pack so trying to feed the left front wing with clean air for grip as she turned in.

“It looks like she just went a bit too low, put the tires over the seam and that bottomed the car, gave it a bobble, and at that speed it’s awfully hard to catch it. She was completely frank, said it was her mistake and that it wouldn’t happen again.”

Cannon said that the damage was relatively light. “Oh yeah, it’s mostly cosmetic. A couple of wishbones bent, but no problem; we have all the spares we need and can get it right back to the way it was and she’ll be off again.”

Happy with other cars

Cannon added that the team was content with the performance of the other three cars, even though Conor Daly, Gabby Chaves and Bryan Clauson were 16^th, 25^th and 27^th.

“Yeah, we’re fine,” said Cannon. “Gabby’s really enthusiastic about his car and we’re plenty happy with Conor’s. He seems quite comfortable with what he’s got, so we’ll see what the weekend brings regarding temperature.

“It will be interesting to see what the pace is. Carb Day practice is normally one of those sessions where people are just putting on a show to look fast. But I think today, everyone was genuinely researching what they might have to run in the race.”