Nissan’s Jann Mardenborough had a successful start to his GP3 season last weekend with a podium finish at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, ahead of Sunday’s Formula One race. The young British racer headed straight to Spain after returning from Nissan’s LM P1 Test in the U.S. last week and immediately made good on his promise to be a regular podium finisher in 2015.
Mardenborough had his work cut out for him in race one on Saturday as he had only managed to take 15th place on the grid due to a red flag but an incredible drive saw him work his way through the field, all the way up to fourth by the chequered flag. He produced another spirited drive in race two, offering a great example of professional race craft before taking third place and his first podium of the new GP3 season.
“I managed to get past a few cars at the start but then got mugged into turn one,” said Jann. “I decided to sit tight and bide my time, which worked out well as I was able to then fight for the last podium place. Who knows what the result would have been if I had got through turn one without any dramas! I have worked hard over the winter on my driving style and now everything I learned last year has helped me this weekend. I can’t wait for the next race now to see what I can do with a good qualifying position.”
Jann wasn’t the only Nissan LM P1 driver in single-seater action last weekend. Lucas Ordonez was on track at Motegi in Japan in the Japanese Formula 3 Championship – where he finished in the top six in all three races – and Max Chilton was in Indianapolis, racing in the Indy Lights series where he bagged points and a podium.
One of the hardest challenges for GT teams and drivers is the Nürburgring 24 Hours. Nissan’s participation is particularly poignant this year after the events of VLN 1 in March.
The line-up on the Nissan GT Academy Team RJN GT-R consists of three of Nissan’s LM P1 squad – Alex Buncombe (GB), Michael Krumm (GER) and Lucas Ordonez (ESP) – along with Michael and Lucas’ fellow Super GT star, Kazuki Hoshino (Japanese). The eponymous Schulze Motorsport team will also run a Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 and the Schulze brothers will be joined by GT Academy winners Florian Strauss and Jordan Tresson.
“This will be my third Nürburgring 24 Hours and I am as excited as ever to race on the Nordschleife,” said Ordonez. “Last year I got the flu and by the time we got to race day I could barely get out of bed so I couldn’t race, which was very frustrating. I’m really looking forward to this year’s race. We have a strong line up, a strong car and a strong team. The competition is very tough but we will fight as hard as we can. We need to stay steady, stay focused and enjoy it. We have some great tyres from Michelin which I am excited about, especially when you consider that the GT-R that won at Bathurst was on Michelins!”
The Nürburgring 24 Hours starts at 16:00 CET this Saturday.
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Pretty awesome! Keep it up!
Great job guy. Keep up the best driving and best of luck.
The kid has a bright future!
Definitely! Hopefully he can grab a few more wins to add to his tally this season! Keep up the great work, Jann! :):tup:
That car that Jann is piloting we need those in GT, like now. PD if you can’t do the license just do like you did with the FGT. Out of date F1, just use the design and make one for each of the years that you can, with accompanying stats.
Great to see Jann back to form, I can only imagine how it must have felt to be behind the wheel of the car that took another’s life.
Really glad to see Jann back at it, I was in the dark a little bit with no news on his progress after the tragedy at the nurburgring, was starting to think we wouldn’t see him again.
Sorry, should have made that ‘after seeing no news’, I’m sure there has been some updates somewhere.
I’m glad it doesn’t seem to have affected his mental state too much. To be so young and have something happen out of your control with that kind of result can mess with a person’s mind. Nevertheless I am super happy about this news though!!