Three Cadillac Racing entries took the green flag for the 2023 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, including No. 2 V-Series.R, which will be driven by Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn and Richard Westbrook; the No. 3 V-Series.R of Sebastian Bourdais, Renger van der Zande and Scott Dixon; and the No. 311 V-Series.R driven by Pipo Derani, Alexander Sims and Jack Aitken. Despite a wild 24 hours, the luxury marque earned its first podium finish at the historic event.
The most impressive showing was put forth by the No. 2 V-Series.R of Bamber, Lynn and Westbrook. This entry had a relatively quiet 24 hours, with its only mishap being a neat spin under Westbrook’s control due to a wet racetrack, which the team easily recovered from to finish third overall in the Hypercar class.
“There’s always going to be a bit of disappointment with finishing third, I’ve done that enough times at Le Mans, so that hurts in a way, but just super-proud to be part of Cadillac,” Westbrook said. “This has given us so much to work on, we can see where we need to improve, we know where they’re really good now, and we’ve just got to work hard, grind it out and come back strong next year.”
The No. 3 V-Series.R overcame contact with several competitors that forced the team to run a lap down more than once, rallying back to a fourth-place finish.
“We’ve been the quickest car, or one of the quickest cars out there,” Bourdais said of the No. 3 V-Series.R. “It’s been an awesome day driving. Just not the right circumstances for us. We had one opportunity to get back on the lead lap, which I took. I overtook the leader and started to pull away. I had about a 30-second gap and then that [LMP2 car] just turned on me. I wasn’t taking any prisoners at that stage.”
Meanwhile, the No. 311 V-Series.R finished 17th overall due to an early incident that forced the team to make extensive repairs. This entry finished 18 laps down.
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