Photo : OLIVIER BEROUD / VSA

 

Together the two French drivers have shared great results in La Sarthe: sixth with Oreca in 2002, second in 2009 and third in 2011 with Peugeot. Franck Montagny also finished second in 2006 (that year, one of his teammates was the multiple Rally World Champion, Sébastien Loeb) and third in 2008, while Stéphane Sarrazin matched Jacky Ickx's record of three consecutive pole positions in 2007-2008-2009 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Five years after having raced in IndyCar with a team at the time called Andretti Green Racing, Montagny has gone to Formula E with the former American driver's team (now called Andretti Autosport), with whom he shared one endurance victory in 2008 at the American Le Mans Series race of Belle Isle (Detroit) along with the Brit, James Rossiter. With Venturi Formula-E Team (one of the partners of which is none other than the actor Leonardo DiCaprio, a long-time advocate of environmentally-friendly automobiles) Sarrazin has returned to a full single-seater program, 15 years after his lone Formula 1 Grand Prix with Minardi. Along with Sébastien Buemi and Lucas di Grassi, he is one of three Formula E drivers to have participated in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) at the wheel of a hybrid prototype. Is this an advantage for them? First inklings of the answer on Saturday, September 13th in Beijing, China.

Jean-Philippe Doret / ACO - Translation by Nikki Ehrhardt / ACO

Photo: LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES, 24 HOURS OF LE MANS, THURSDAY JUNE 12 2014, QUALIFYING. At this year's 24 Hours, the Toyota TS040 Hybrid of Stéphane Sarrazin (at right) started from the pole position, clinched by Kazuki Nakajima (with helmet). At left, their teammate Alexander Wurz.