BRITON TINCKNELL RECORDS FOURTH CAREER SPORTSCAR VICTORY
Harry Tincknell recorded his fourth career sportscar victory when the Briton helped JOTA Sport notch up its first European Le Mans Series of the year today (12 July). The Nissan NISMO factory driver now jointly leads the Drivers standings with two races remaining having placed second and third in earlier ELMS races this year.
Harry, who switched to the sportscar category only last year, along with Simon Dolan and Filipe Albuquerque, enjoyed a 27.478-seconds winning margin in the Four Hours of Red Bull Ring the same trio having finished second in the corresponding race last year. Tincknell had previously enjoyed victories at Imola (I) and Le Mans last year plus at Spa-Francorchamps (B) two months ago.
Harry claimed his second consecutive pole-position at the Red Bull Ring his first of 2015 to earn JOTA its second ELMS pole in a row watched by his mentor, Allan McNish, the triple Le Mans 24 Hour race winner and 2013 FIA World Endurance Champion.
Albuquerque began the race, leading impressively before pitting to Dolan on 58mins. Simon himself did an outstanding job in retaining the lead before handing the Gibson-Nissan over to Tincknell under Safety Car conditions with 88mins to run.
The JOTA Gibson had a seven seconds lead with an hour remaining, Harry comfortably extending the advantage to almost 19secs before making his final fuel only pit-stop with just 23mins remaining. Tincknell resumed second, 20secs down, but was back in front almost immediately when the leader was summoned by the race organisers to serve a stop-go penalty for a pit-lane infringement.
Tincknell, having his first race after making his race debut in the Nissan GT-R LM NISMO at the Le Mans 24 Hours last month (13-14 June), will be back behind the wheel of the Nissan LM P1 for a two-day test at the Circuit Of The Americas (COTA) in Texas later this month.
Harry says:
"I'm really, really happy with our performance in Austria. Achieving pole-position at the Red Bull Ring for a second consecutive year was great but I come to expect that now with what JOTA Sport gives us drivers in the form of the Gibson-Nissan. Filipe drove a perfect opening stint at the start but kept having his lead eroded by the Safety Cars. In my opinion, Simon drove his best ever race which meant that I was right in the hunt when I took over to the chequered flag. Safety Cars disrupted my own stints but I just got my head down each time and pulled away and thankfully it was enough! A stunning effort by all of the team as always. Pole, win, fastest lap and championship lead job done!"
