SMP Racing's Dallara P217 got hot

SMP Racing placed its Dallara P217 in 16th position in the LMP2 class in the first qualifying session of the 85th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans thanks to a lap completed in 3'34''407 by Mikhail Aleshin, the LMP2 being only the 3rd prototype in the hierarchy following the Oreca 07.

The end of the evening was complicated for SMP Racing as the Dallara P217 suffered a fire caused by a broken exhaust. If the images were impressive, the team has repaired the Italian LMP2 which should be ready for the next qualifying session which will begin this evening at 19 p.m.

# LeMans24 The reason for the long yellow color that we don't teach. @SaldanaTomas pic.twitter.com/y99kCGGXqN

— Sergio Martínez (@123pnz) 14th June 2017

SMP Racing is still working on the new high downforce aero kit provided by Dallara which provides increased performance in corners.

“We still haven't made our choice and we continue to compare the data with that collected during the Test Day, explained Farida Zadi, the team manager of SMP Racing, to AUTOhebdo.fr. We will know more after the last two qualifying sessions and we will then be able to make our choice. Dallara lets us make the decision and I won't be surprised if the choices differ depending on the teams. »    

Victor Shaitar had progressed in 3'33''787 during the Test Day at the wheel of the Dallara P217 which had the low downforce aero kit, but the times have evolved since the first tests of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the summer conditions encountered this week in Sarthe.

Dallara brought the high downforce aero kit to meet the needs of teams who were surprised by the maximum speeds reached by the P217 on the 24 Hours of Le Mans circuit but who complained about the grip in corners.