Great speed and pace, but little reward at Monza

It was another double points finish for both blue and white Duqueine D08s in the 4 Hours of Monza, but Nielsen left Italy disappointed after not being able to challenge for the LMP3 podium in what was an eventful race. The #7 fought for podium positions for the first part of the race, but was knocked out of contention by the #55 Ferrari coming to a close and removing yet another rear legality panel, forcing Tony Wells into a lengthy pitstop for repairs, eventually putting Colin Noble two laps adrift from the leaders.

The sister #10 D08 had better fortunes, with Rob Hodes and Charles Crews climbing the ranks after Hodes was forced into the gravel to avoid a spinning rival during the first lap. The Americans were right in the battle for fourth for the best part of the race, but Garett Grist was involved in a spectacular incident with the Duqueine Team #30 backing up and sending him into a spin following the Inter Europol #34 losing its engine cover, and eventually had to settle for sixth with a damaged car.

4 Hours of Monza results

#10 Rob Hodes, Charles Crews & Garett Grist
Qualified – P6 1:43.941
Race – P6 P19 overall after 124 laps

#7 Tony Wells & Colin Noble
Qualified – P7 1:43.955
Race – P8 P25 overall after 123 laps

Monza Sven Thompson - Great speed and pace, but little reward at Monza
Monza-Sven-Thompson

Sven Thompson, Team Principal

“Ideally, we were fast enough to be at least fourth, seeing how the race panned out by the end. It’s been a frustrating season for the #7 crew in terms of results in both ELMS and the Le Mans Cup due to external factors, especially after coming back from winning in Asia. Tony was hit at Paul Ricard and then the same happened here, the only “clean” race we had all season was at Spa and that was a podium, and we had a very competitive since the second round.”

Monza Charles Crews - Great speed and pace, but little reward at Monza
Monza-Charles-Crews

Charles Crews, #10 Duqueine D08

“It’s a fantastic result, but yes, a bit of a welcome surprise. We went from lapping and around and then all of a sudden, the race came to us. The last 15-minutes were unbelievably exciting and I’m so happy to get a win out of that. It has been a tough season for us, and today we thought we’d be maybe fourth. We took our chance with the Safety Car and then Colin drove a tremendous final stint, passing Alex Kapadia and moving up. He would have won even without the penalty for the race leader, but he hung back knowing the situation, and he was in the mood, the win was there and we took it.”

Nielsen Racing 2020 season lineup

European Le Mans Series
#7 – Tony Wells and Colin Noble
#10 – Rob Hodes, Garett Grist and Charles Crews

Le Mans Cup
#7 – Tony Wells and Colin Noble
#10 – Rob Hodes and Garett Grist
#20 – Alex Mortimer and Mark Crader

24 Hours of Le Mans
#24 – Tony Wells, Garett Grist and Alex Kapadia

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