Egor Orudzhev took part in the second round of the FIA ​​WEC

6 October 2019/ smp

SMP Racing driver Egor Orudzhev took part in the second round of the World Endurance Championship, which took place on October 4-6 at the Japanese Fuji track.

Egor competes for the British Team LNT driving the Ginetta G60-LT-P1 sport prototype number 5. In qualifying, the crew of Orudzhev, the Englishman Ben Hanley and the Italian Luca Giotto, was fourth fastest in the overall standings and in the top LMP1 class.

Almost the entire distance of the Sunday’s race, the Ginetta G60-LT-P1 was keeping fourth position, but closer to the end of the race, the brake disc failed and the crew lost a lot of time while replacing it. Therefore, the crew finished the 6 hours of Fuji race in fifth place in the LMP1 class and eleventh in the overall standings.

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“I was very happy to be back behind the wheel of the LMP1 sport prototype, so thanks to SMP Racing and the Team LNT team for this opportunity,” Egor Orudzhev said. “Even though this is only the second round of the season, the progress of the car is noticeable. Maybe this is not so evident from the result in the final standings, but we have speed and the team is certainly competitive. My stint was generally good. I started the race, had a great start, and if not for the Toyota’s boost, then I could be second. I think that fans have questions for such races when overtaking requires only pushing a button. The second part of my stint turned out to be difficult - we did not guess correctly with the tyre pressures. And when Luca took over from me, we, of course, took this into account and fixed it, so further our car had a good pace, especially when it started to rain. But, unfortunately, all hopes of a good result disappeared when a brake disc exploded while Ben was driving. In general, I think we showed good speed for a car with weight penalty of 36 kg. So, I hope that in the future the team will continue to improve.”
 
Photos: FIA WEC
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