McIntosh seventh fastest at Le Mans test

Courtesy Stuart Morrison Public Relations

Le Mans, France (April 03, 2006) – Sean McIntosh set the seventh fastest time in official pre-season testing as the World Series by Renault sampled the Bugatti Circuit at Le Mans, France at the weekend, 1st-2nd April. The Canadian’s test was a tale of two contrasting days as he endured the frustration of a blown engine on Saturday before responding with his front-running pace on Sunday afternoon.

Saturday’s session began with a bang as McIntosh’s engine let go leaving him languishing at the bottom of the timesheets. The Team KTR crew set to work immediately replacing Sean’s Renault power-unit and as track conditions and lap times improved, he picked up where he left off in the morning learning the new-look Bugatti layout.

Yesterday’s morning session echoed that of Saturday with a wet track greeting the 30-car field. With little to learn on a greasy circuit Sean racked up five token laps before breaking for lunch. Fortunately for all concerned the afternoon’s session presented more favorable conditions and Sean seized the opportunity in the closing stages to pound out some fast laps on a fresh set of Michelin tires. His fastest time, a 1m24.529s, placed him seventh overall for the day and continued to underline his potential with the start of the new World Series by Renault season just four weeks away.

Sean McIntosh: “Taking the positives from the weekend it’s pretty good to come away from Le Mans seventh fastest. I think there’s still a lot more to come from myself and the car. The team did a great job to get me back out, we just didn’t get the opportunity to work on as many things as we’d have liked due to the problems on Saturday and the conditions on Sunday morning. I’m looking forward to the next test in Germany and trying out a few more things with the car.”

Kurt Mollekens – Team Manager: “Considering the problems we had with Sean’s engine failure on Saturday everything turned out well in the end. Sean missed quite a bit of running on the first day but we got him back out and he continued to learn the circuit. Seventh quickest yesterday shows how competitive Sean is and to-date I’m impressed by his performances. We’ll be looking for more of the same as we head to Germany this week.” Sean’s third and final World Series by Renault pre-season test takes place at the Nurburgring Circuit in Germany on Wednesday and Thursday, 5th-6th April.