24h Le Mans
With the second fastest time overall during GP3 Series pre-season testing in Barcelona, Jann Mardenborough has shown that he is more than capable of switching from a games console to the wheel of a race car. The young British driver, who has already served notice of his talent in the LM P2 class, will be competing in a Nissan GT-R LM Nismo in the 83rd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
If most Nissan GT Academy graduates are now out on the track all over the world, not many have experienced the meteoric rise of Jann Mardenborough, who, in just three years, has complied with the results-based membership criteria of the exclusive British Racing Drivers’ Club. Over these three years, the Japanese constructor has taken the youngster under its wing to train him for endurance, and also for single-seaters.
Last year, in his debut season in GP3 Series, one of the access routes to Formula One, Jann Mardenborough clinched victory at Hockenheim, finishing ahead of more experienced drivers who had come up through karting. The Nissan factory driver has already indicated to his rivals that he will be a serious contender in 2015 too by clocking the fastest time on the opening day of pre-season testing in Barcelona, the setting for the first round of the GP3 Series season (8-10 May), with only Norwegian Pal Varhaug bettering the mark on the second day.
Alongside the GP3 Series, Mardenborough will be behind the wheel when the Nissan GT-R LM Nismo makes its debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June, before competing in the other five rounds of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship season with the Japanese manufacturer.
In 2013, Mardenborough’s first appearance at Le Mans, driving a Zytek-Nissan for Greaves Motorsport, consistent backers of young talent, ended in a third-place finish in the LM P2 class.
Returning to the circuit last June, he shared the wheel of OAK Racing’s Ligier-Nissan with Alex Brundle and Mark Shulzhitskiy, winner of Nissan’s Russian GT Academy, this time finishing in fifth place in the LM P2 class and setting the fastest lap time on four occasions into the bargain, before finally losing out to Nelson Panciatici.
Cécile Bonardel / ACO – English translation by David Goward
Photo credit: Laurent Cartalade - VSA
PHOTO: LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES, 24 HOURS OF LE MANS, 30 MAY 2014, TEST DAY. Jann Mardenborough, now a Nissan factory driver in LM P1 after featuring in the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2014 with OAK Racing, is also a leading competitor in the GP3 Series.
