ELMS - Perfect strategy and victory for Spirit of Race

Monza, 13 May 2018 - The crew of Duncan Cameron, Matt Griffin and Aaron Scott, at the wheel of the Ferrari 488 GTE of Spirit of Race, won the 4 Hours of Monza, the second round of the European Le Mans Series. In a race marked by many accidents and contacts that brought the safety car out on track three times in the first two hours, the Swiss team made the most of all the neutralisations to take the lead and then hold it. This well-deserved success due to a brilliant race strategy paid them back for the difficult debut at the Paul Ricard.   The other Ferraris. Fourth place was taken by the 488 GTE fielded by JMW Motorsport and crewed by Griffin/MacDowall/Molina, authors of a great final push that brought them close to a podium finish, while sixth went to the 488 GTE of Krohn Racing with Krohn/Jonsson/Bertolini, hampered by the various outings of the safety car. On the podium, the Spirit of Race trio, were joined by the Porsche no. 77 of Proton Competition and the no. 80 of Ebimotors.   Post-race comments. Duncan Cameron: "The fact that the Porsches all went at a very similar pace turned out to our advantage, as was a lucky coincidence with the full course yellow (which brought out the safety car, editor) just when we needed to make a stop, as we were virtually out of fuel". Aaron Scott: "The team came up with a perfect strategy, without which we wouldn't have been able to win because the Porsches benefited from the Balance of Performance. Duncan’s stint was incredible and I tried as far as I could to keep the car away from any possible problem, which was quite tricky because quite a few LMP3 drivers were driving improperly, as shown by the many safety cars that came on track due to accidents". Matt Griffin: "It's clear that our win was down to strategy because in terms of performance, as we saw in the WEC at Spa, the Porsches are favourites both in qualifying and in the race. Today we won thanks to Duncan's fantastic stint and the team's brilliant strategy. Aaron and I had a very difficult task trying not to be hit or damaged by the LMP3 cars despite in some cases being faster than them. We had everything to lose today. After zero points at Le Castellet, it was essential for us to get back into the running because there are six races to go and we couldn't afford any more false steps. I hope that the break between this race and the next one will allow us to rebalance the performance between us and Porsche".