No Brazilian Fiesta for Signatech Nissan

SAO PAULO, Brazil - There were no parties in Sao Paulo for the Signatech Nissan team after the No.23 Oreca-Nissan was forced to retire from round five of the FIA World Endurance Championship while running competitively in third place. Of the other Nissan-powered cars in the race there were podium finishes for the No.40 Pecom Racing entry and the No.24 Morgan-Nissan of Oak Racing.

The retirement of No.23 was a huge disappointment for the Signatech Nissan team, not least Jordan Tresson who had only just taken the wheel. The race had got away to a great start with Franck Mailleux improving on his sixth place qualifying position by making his way up to third place after just 15 minutes of racing. Olivier Lombard was up next and continued the good work before pitting to hand over to Jordan.

Everything seemed normal during the scheduled pit stop then as Jordan approached turn 10, the left rear wheel came off the Oreca-Nissan. Jordan was unable to complete the lap as this part of the track is unfortunately uphill. The Signatech Nissan team is now investigating how the wheel nut came loose.

"The weekend was going so well until this point," said Jordan. "We were the fastest in the second Free Practice session and we were very confident for the race. The car was great in race trim, as proved by Franck who ran as high as second before he handed over to Olivier. It is unfortunate that this happened but we can take the confidence we now have in our race set up through to Bahrain and hope for a little more luck next time out."

Round six of the FIA World Endurance Championship takes place in Bahrain in two weeks' time.

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Contact

Lindsay Morle
Motorsports Nissan Europe
lindsay@morle.com
+44 7971 481078