Top four spot for Greaves Motorsport in 6 Hours of São Paulo

After an incident packed race at the famous Interlagos circuit Greaves Motorsport took a hard fought fourth place in the LM P2 class. A new driver combination of Christian Zugel, Bjorn Wirdheim and Gunnar Jeannette all drove strong stints in the team’s Nissan powered Zytek prototype.

Christian Zugel, Gunnar Jeannette, Greaves Motorsport, Zytek Z11SN - Nissan

Photo by: XPB Images

The team and drivers pushed as hard as they could for the rest of the race and their efforts were rewarded with a repeat their 2012 result in Brazil. This result maintains the team’s fourth place standing in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Team Manager, Jacob Greaves: “We had a good run with a strong result and have maintained our position in the Championship. It was good to welcome Christian back, over the past two seasons he has become an integral part of the team. Gunnar we know from Le Mans back in 2008 and he performed strongly.

Bjorn was really good, fast and consistent, which is what you what you would expect if you consider his past record. The Zytek chassis, the Nissan engine and the Dunlop tyres all performed to their usual high level and the guys on the team were, as ever, the best. We are looking forward to improving our finishing position in Austin later this month. We are aiming at the podium.”

Team Principal, Tim Greaves: “It was a very eventful race, the team did their usual tiptop job and so did the drivers in difficult conditions. Christian had one of his best races with us, probably only second to Le Mans 24 Hours last year. We haven’t finalised the driver line up for Austin yet, but if we could find the funding for Bjorn he would be very high on our list. He did a great job in a car, a track and a Championship that were all new to him.

Gunnar’s return to Greaves Motorsport (he drove with us at Le Mans in 2008) was successful, especially considering his personal circumstances. He was in some pain during the race from his “Skyfall” adventures where he broke his leg in a freak, but potentially terminal, accident. He gritted his teeth and ignored the discomfort throughout the race, running at a good pace. It is a real pleasure working with all concerned.”

“So much for the positive, the first Safety Car intervention again ruined the race for all LM P2 cars except #26 and #49. All the others lost the best part of a lap, just as happened earlier this year at Spa. The Officials seem to fail to recognise the damage this is doing to the reputation of the FIA World Endurance Championship, particularly when we are in competition with other series for budgets.

It is a 6 hour race and with radio communications at the level that they are it would be simple to give the cars disadvantaged a “wave by”. All the Officials say that it is the same for everyone but that clearly is not the case. Well if our customers vote with their feet as a result of this arbitrary factor we will all be worse off.”

Greaves Motorsport