Tandy surprised himself with pass

Porsche Supercup regular Nick Tandy said his pass for second place in the GTE Pro class on Corvette Racing's Olivier Beretta as the track went green after the safety car intervention came as much of a surprise to him as it did to Beretta

Stuart Codling Jun 11, 2011, 4:29 PM

Tandy confessed that he had actually lost track of his own position during the safety car period at the end of the first hour at Le Mans.

"To be honest I've no idea what happened," the Felbermayr Porsche driver told AUTOSPORT. "He [Beretta] was in front of me but I had no idea whether I was a lap behind or not. I didn't know where I was. I just went for it."

The collision between Allan McNish's Audi LMP1 and Anthony Beltoise's GTE Am Ferrari during the first hour has thrown the spotlight on how the GTE cars interact with the faster prototypes. Tandy believes that the GTE drivers have to be able to claim their own line in the corners.

"You rely on them to decide what they're going to do," he said. "If you're on the straight it's no problem, they just go straight past. But in the corners you have to concentrate on your own line - you can't look in your mirror at the same time as turning in to the corner."