WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans

Maldonado "devastated" to cause intra-United Le Mans clash

Manuel Maldonado admits he is "devastated" at causing the crash that eliminated two of United Autosports' LMP2 entries from winning contention in last weekend's Le Mans 24 Hours.

Jamie Klein

Edited: Aug 24, 2021, 4:43 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

#32 United Autosports Oreca 07 - Gibson LMP2 of Nicolas Jamin, Jonathan Aberdein, Manuel Maldonado, damage detail

European Le Mans Series regular Maldonado, younger cousin of one-time Formula 1 race winner Pastor, was making his first start at La Sarthe in United's #32 Oreca 07-Gibson alongside Nico Jamin and Jonathan Aberdein.

But the Venezuelan driver's race ended in disaster in the sixth hour of the race during a rain shower as he skated through the gravel at the Dunlop chicane, collecting the sister #23 United entry of Paul di Resta.

Read Also:

It ended the #32 crew's race on the spot, while sending the #23 car to the pits for repairs and extinguishing any hopes of class victory for di Resta and his teammates Alex Lynn and Wayne Boyd.

“I’m obviously devastated with how the race ended," commented Maldonado. "I’m very sorry to the team and my teammates who have put so much work into this race.

"Before that, we were running well, and Nico and Jonathan had begun making their way back through the pack so we were looking good. Hopefully I can come back and take on another Le Mans 24 Hours. It’s such an awesome event to be involved with.”

Di Resta, Lynn and Boyd finally recovered to finish fourth in the LMP2 class, two laps down on the winning Team WRT car.

“It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster week," said di Resta. "We had a very strong car and made it through to the Hyperpole qualifying which I think was a big job.

"It was then obviously a chaotic start with the rain, and it was very unfortunate what happened with Manuel making the mistake he made which t-boned me and ruined their chances of finishing the race.

"We were quite high up at that point and were taking a very cautious approach from 10:00 o'clock to 6:00 o'clock in the night, but we had that fighting spirit and powered our way back to fourth. I think you can say a job very well done but off the back of our win last year it is a disappointing result."

Di Resta was part of the LMP2 class-winning crew from 2020 along with Phil Hanson and Filipe Albuquerque, who were piloting United's #22 Oreca this time around with regular FIA World Endurance Championship squadmate Fabio Scherer, another Le Mans novice.

The #22 machine was running in the top three in class during the night when it was hit by an alternator issue that required 90 minutes in the garage to fix, which combined with further electrical gremlins left Hanson, Albuquerque and Scherer 35 laps down at the finish.

“It was an unfortunate race," said Albuquerque. "Hard for everyone in the beginning with the rain. We managed to survive for the good stint we had in the dry. Unfortunately, when we were chasing the leaders, we had an issue.

"It’s frustrating but it's like that at Le Mans. I think without that we were definitely on the strike for the win. It is what it is. We were the winners last year. This year we were not, but we will come back.”

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article ACO extends deal with FIA to promote WEC

Next article Cadillac announces WEC, IMSA programmes with new LMDh contender

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

The Kimi Antonelli you don't know: Inside the Mercedes garage with F1's new world champion

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

36 min

The Kimi Antonelli you don't know: Inside the Mercedes garage with F1's new world champion

F1 driver contracts: How long is each driver tied down for?

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1 1 h

F1 driver contracts: How long is each driver tied down for?

IndyCar 2026 season review: ECR

IndyCar

Indy IndyCar 17 h

IndyCar 2026 season review: ECR

Toto Wolff reflects on Mercedes’ non-title years: ‘We weren’t complete losers’

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

17 h

Toto Wolff reflects on Mercedes’ non-title years: ‘We weren’t complete losers’

Feature

Discover prime content

A fond farewell to a few WEC favourites

WEC

Monza

By Gary Watkins

A fond farewell to a few WEC favourites

How Cadillac triumphed in the WEC Monza 6 Hours without the fastest car

WEC

Monza

By Gary Watkins

How Cadillac triumphed in the WEC Monza 6 Hours without the fastest car

Why Toyota’s 2026 WEC triumphs have put it into the all-time greatest endurance racing team debate

WEC

Barcelona

By Gary Watkins

Why Toyota’s 2026 WEC triumphs have put it into the all-time greatest endurance racing team debate

How Toyota destroyed the competition to seal the WEC crowns

WEC

Barcelona

By Gary Watkins

How Toyota destroyed the competition to seal the WEC crowns

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts