Reigning LMP2 Pro/Am champion Francois Perrodo arrives in Imola for Round 3 of the 2024 European Le Mans Series as the 24 Hours of Le Mans LMP2 Pro/Am champion after winning the title alongside Ben Barnicoat and Nico Varrone in the AF Corse run Oreca-Gibson. This was Perrodo's second win in Le Mans, having won the LMGTE AM title in 2021.
Perrodo returns to the ELMS with his regular teammates Matthieu Vaxiviere and Alessio Rovera, the trio currently lying in second in the LMP2 Pro/Am standings, six points behind Round 2 winners Richard Mille by TDS, after winning in Barcelona and finishing 4th in Le Castellet.
We caught up with Francois Perrodo to talk about his second win at Le Mans and his thoughts on this weekend’s race at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari.
Q: Congratulations on the victory at Le Mans, the second one for you there.
Francois Perrodo: “Thank you. After 2021 in GTE AM, this one took a while coming, but we’re super happy.
“It was a difficult race, a race of attrition. We knew that if we just stayed out of trouble, particularly through the night, we'd have a good shot, and that's exactly what happened.
“I think we were even leading in LMP2 overall at one stage, so that was definitely a good feeling.”
Q: Obviously, you got your regular two teammates back this weekend for the 4 Hours of Imola. What's your thoughts on this one?
“It's going to be a tough one, I haven't really had time to rest after Le Mans as I went straight back to work. So Alessio and Matthieu are very quick. I'm a little bit on the backfoot, so we'll see. I've got two days to get in rhythm and match the other bronzes and hopefully let the boys bring her home on the highest possible step of the podium, fingers crossed."
Q: It's a very narrow track, so traffic management is going to be difficult around here, isn't it?
“Yes, it is. I think there’s going to be the heat element as well. I think it'll be even hotter later this weekend. I think it won't rain hopefully, but it'll be a little bit like Le Mans, four hours is quite long. We need to stay out of trouble because the problem here is there’s a lot of gravel. So if you have an off, it's going to put you one or two laps down. So, let's have a clean race.”
The 4 Hours of Imola is Round 3 of the 2024 European Le Mans Series and is the first of two events in Italy, the second being the 4 Hours of Mugello in September.
