Caterham qualifies for the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans

The green outfit Caterham has now integrated with Greaves Motorsport to make their debut at the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans. The team is fielding a Nissan powered Zytek LMP2 prototype with Alexander Rossi, Eric Lux, and Tom Kimber-Smith behind their wheel. 

In the qualifying session held on June 20, 2013 at the La Sarthe circuit the team qualified 13th in the LMP2 category and 21st overall. Caterham F1 team Reserve Driver and GP2 racer Alexander Rossi had his first competitive foray in International motorsport.

The team had to sit-out in the first session following an accident in the free practice due to which they had to work on repairs on the Zytek Z11SN-Nissan. In the second session, double LMP2-class winner Tom Kimber-Smith was behind the wheel of the car and clocked a timing of 3 minute and 44.621 seconds placing them 13^th in the LMP2 category.

In the final qualifying session all three drivers managed to rack up a few laps on the car. On his first outing at Le Mans, Alexander Rossi said “The night driving is tricky, especially because the track was in transition from wet to dry so it was difficult to distinguish the damp parts. There is room for improvement but there's not much to complain about. Importantly, there were no issues with the car.”

Commenting on the overall performance of the team in the qualifying, Caterham Technology CEO, Mike Gascoyne said, “We’re very pleased with our starting position for our first ever Le Mans 24.” He added saying “All three drivers put in some strong laps on Thursday and, while the race will not be without its challenges, I’m confident that this good pace from the team will translate into a strong race result on Sunday”

Caterham has entered the Le Mans challenge with the aim of being able to explore the possibilities of producing a customer sports prototype in the future, as a part of its long-term growth plans. This will be the first time the British marquee will make its foray in the iconic round-the-clock race.