Last weekend marked the launch of the Ultimate Cup Series’ first season, a championship led by Vicent Vigier, in partnership with Michelin. The Filiere Frédéric Sausset by ST41 was indeed present at this first meeting, taking place at Estoril, running a Ligier JS P3 in preparation for the 2020 – 24 Hours of Le Mans.
After two Free Practice sessions, in which Takuma Aoki, Snoussi Ben Moussa and Nigel Bailly got used to the car and the track, the team qualified 12th.
With a solid strategy in place, Frédéric Sausset and Christophe Tinseau gave Nigel Bailly the first drive who, with a great start, secured 8th position after the first lap.
After an hour of racing, Bailly pitted to give the car over to Takuma Aoki. Unfortunately, all the teams hopes were lost after the japanese driver lost control of the car and slowly headed back to the pits.
After an examination, engineer Quentin Picard made the hard choice of not sending the car back out onto the track, due to a lack of safety.
“This first meeting is of course a disappointment for the whole team that worked incredibly hard. We have used up our ‘joker’ for this season; for what’s to come we must show the quality of our drivers and the hard work put in by the Team.” said Frédéric Sausset.
The next meeting is at Dijon on the 26th and 27th of April, where team Filiere Frédéric Sausset By SRT41 will strive to do well.
Pierre-Louis Le Mouëllic
Source : https://endurance24.fr/un-debut-de-saison-complique-pour-la-filiere-frederic-sausset-a-estoril/