Fassbender to start from second on the grid for Sunday’s Four Hours of La Castellet at Circuit Paul Ricard in France

Fassbender to start from second on the grid for Sunday’s Four Hours of La Castellet

Michael Fassbender and his two co-drivers will start from second place on the GTE grid for today’s Four Hours of La Castellet.

The third round of the European Le Mans Series gets underway at 10 am Irish time later today.

Team Proton Competition’s lead driver in the number 93 car, Richard Lietz set second fastest time in Saturday’s qualification session to ensure he, Fassbender and new co-driver Jaxon Evans will start in second place. The team’s second car will start one place behind.

“Crews #93 and #77 did an amazing job at the qualifying session. P1 was taken away from @richardlietz911 in the final lap of the session, but still a great result to have the cars in P2 (car #93) and P3 (car #77),” said a social media post issued by the team.

It is the team’s best qualification session so far this season and comes on the back of their fourth-place finish in Austria last month.

“Against the strong competition we have to improve from race to race in order to be able to keep up with the best. We managed to do that quite well in Austria. I very much hope that we can take the next step at Le Castellet and fight for our first podium,” said Fassbender.

In Friday’s Bronze Driver session Fassbender was fifth fastest out of the nine Bronze drivers.

The racetrack

The 5.810 kilometer long Circuit Paul Ricard is located in Le Castellet in the south of France on a plateau between Toulon and Marseille. The beaches of the Cote d’Azur are around 20 kilometers away. A special feature of the race track, which opened in 1970 with its 13 curves, is the 1.6 kilometer long Mistral straight.

The car

Proton Competition starts in the European Le Mans Series with the Porsche 911 RSR. Its engine installed in front of the rear axle has an output of around 378 kW (515 hp), depending on the size of the restrictor. The large rear diffuser in combination with the attached rear wing ensures aerodynamic efficiency and a high level of downforce.

Live on TV

The four-hour race on the Paul Ricard Circuit starts on Sunday, at 10.00 am Irish Time. It is broadcast as a free live stream on http://www.europeanlemansseries.com.