Jakub Smiechowski explained how Inter Europol Competition’s Le Mans LMP2 victory was more difficult to claim compared to their 2023 victory.
“It was a crazy race, obviously, for us, with highs and downs all the time,” Smiechowski told Motorsport Week after the race.
“We got a penalty (drive-through for pit speed violation), then we made a mistake and lost a lot of time in the pit stops.
“Then I went through the gravel again… but then we recovered. It was a beautiful race.
“Somehow it felt much more difficult to win this time than it did in 2023, although you cannot really compare. But yeah… somehow it just felt harder.
“This year the #48 VDS car was always there — always putting pressure on us.
“Whereas in ’23, at some points, we were quite a bit quicker, and we could recover a lot.
“But this year, it was really, really hard competition.
“It’s an amazing feeling, you know, to hear the national anthem again. And with Robert [Kubica] winning today, it’s been a long time coming already.
“At the end, we were just tripling [tyre stints] because of the heat.
“So we didn’t really need to manage the tyres much, to be honest.
“The [tyre] wear here in Le Mans anyway is relatively low. So it’s also nice to be able to push every lap.”
Tom Dillmann started Inter Eurpol’s #43 Oreca 07 LMP2 in second position against 16 other competitors in the class.
VDS Panis Racing’s #48 Oreca kept within distance of the #43 Inter Europol Oreca throughout the race, with debutant Oliver Gray having closed down the #43 during the closing stages.
The #48 Oreca suffered issues as Yelloly retook the lead from #48 Oreca driver Esteban Masson just 10 minutes before the end.
READ MORE – #43 Inter Europol Competition secures LMP2 Le Mans class victory
