Despite a strong performance that saw him take the lead of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, mechanical issues spelt an early end to Tom Blomqvist’s debut at the legendary race.
Tom teamed up with HubAuto Racing to take charge of the #72 Ferrari 488 GTE alongside Marcos Gomes and team owner Morris Chen.
With the team up to speed following 11 hours of track time on Thursday, the team qualified 13th in the LMGTE AM class for Saturday’s race.
Marcos took the start of the race and, by the end of his stint, had climbed up the order to fourth in class before handing the car over to Tom for his maiden stint.
Furthering Marcos’ progress, Tom produced an excellent display throughout his stint take the #72 to first place and led the class. The team then maintained their front-running performance throughout the first quarter of the race.
Tom continued to impress throughout the race as he completed two triple stints in the first 15 hours, keeping the team inside the top-ten.
With just under four hours of the race remaining, the car suffered from a mechanical fault and was forced into the pits. Despite the team’s best efforts to repair the car and resume the race, the issue was terminal and brought about a premature end to their race. Tom was praised highly by the team for his efforts in taking them to the lead in their first-ever appearance at Le Mans.
“I couldn’t be happier with my performance,” Tom said. “Whilst it was a disappointing way to end the weekend, the early part of our race was very promising and it felt amazing to be leading Le Mans on my debut. The race had been high on my list for such a long time so I’m thrilled to be able to say I’ve done it - I’m very grateful to the HubAuto Racing team for presenting me with the chance.”
In association with MBP
