What
a month April has been for Romain Dumas! A week after his win on the streets
of Long Beach, the driver originally from Alès again headed the field this weekend
in downtown Houston in the state of Texas. In the face of opposition from Audi
and Acura, the No 7 Porsche RS Spyder emerged the winner of an event which was
far from being a foregone conclusion.Everything went well from the start of this fourth round of the season for Romain and his co-driver, Timo Bernhard, as Dumas set fastest time in the first practice session. But on the slippery and bumpy track, the car was a bit of handful to drive and Romain had to be content with third place on the grid behind one Acura and an Audi. But this did not deflate the Frenchman’s hopes, as both he and the whole Penske team knew that they would be very competitive in the late-afternoon race on Saturday.
Having
qualified the car, Romain was the logical choice to be at the wheel of the Porsche
RS Spyder for the start of the race. The Team Penske driver knew he had to hang
on to the tail of the two cars ahead of him so that they did not pull out any
kind of advantage at the start. He succeeded very well in his aims as at the
end of the first lap, he had already gained one place and was already in the
lead of the LMP2 class. He then harried the Audi in the hands of Allan McNish,
coping well with the traffic, and staying stuck to the exhaust pipes of the
Audi for the first few minutes. But the superior power of the LMP1 car
allowed the Scot to gradually pull away from Romain, who in turn distanced himself
from the rest of the field. After 53 minutes, the Audi made its fuel stop and
Romain took over first place for 15 minutes, before he too stopped to hand over
to his team-mate, Timo Bernhard. The stop was lightning-quick and ensured that
the No 7 car stayed in the lead until their second, and last, pit-stop, made
just before the race was neutralised one more time. In the last few minutes
of the race, Timo had to resist the concerted efforts of Bryan Herta in the
Acura to get ahead, but the German was able to contain the American’s many attempts
at passing and crossed the finish line just as the sun was setting. Timo and
Romain had magnificently led 81 of the 146 laps and this gave them a second
consecutive overall win of the year. It equally meant that their position at
top of the points table was significantly reinforced. After a third of the season,
the Franco-German pairing have a 17 point lead over their Team Penske team-mates,
Maassen and Briscoe. “This race
was run at a very brisk pace. We pushed just as hard as we needed to, to win
it. I think to win at this level and for two races on the trot, is a great achievement
for Porsche and Penske”. romaindumas.com