Filipe Albuquerque admits that the 8 Hours of Bahrain was a tense affair for United Autosports because of the team’s electronics issues in the earlier rounds of the season.
The trio of Albuquerque, Phil Hanson and Paul di Resta took the #22 ORECA 07-Gibson to the team’s first victory in the FIA World Endurance Championship, after a tough start to the season where the Anglo-American outfit was struck by multiple issues.
In Silverstone, the team’s race ended after just a handful of minutes, and electronics issues struck again in Fuji, although that did lead to a podium finish. In Shanghai, a blocked air intake forced an early stop, costing the team a shot at victory.
There were no mechanical issues for the team in Bahrain, but Albuquerque admitted after the race that the team was still tense with the previous issues in mind.
“It’s been quite a while since a win in WEC, but obviously I’m happy,” Albuquerque said. “Especially since we were more tense than normal, because we were having some unlucky electronic issues since the beginning of the season, even if we had the pace.
Leading the race, we thought we had everything under control but we were always tense to see if anything could happen again to take the victory away from us.”
In the end, the team took victory, some twenty seconds clear of the #38 JOTA ORECA 07-Gibson of Anthony Davidson, Antonio Felix da Costa and Roberto Gonzalez. The #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA of Ho Pin Tung, Gabriel Aubry and Will Stevens was a lap down in third place.
The Portuguese driver said that the relative advantage of the Goodyear tyres during the cooler conditions of the night led to a closer fight towards the end of the race.
“But half of the race, I think everything was completely under control,” Albuquerque continued. “We had a massive gap, and then I think the tyres of Goodyear, they were pretty good in the night, and with the cold they were a little bit quicker.
But then came strategy, saving fuel and me against my good friend Antonio [Felix da Costa]. In the end, it was nice for us to score the victory and get good points and break through this spell that we were having.”
