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Hughes gets first point on board
WARREN Hughes scored his first championship point of the season in round two of the Le Mans Series last weekend at Monza, Italy.
Finishing in eighth place at the end of the 1,000km race not only broke the North-East drivers duck, but also gave Embassy Racing their first point as a constructor in the series.
It had been a hard-fought point as Hughes and the team continued to battle against teething problems with the new car.
The biggest problem encountered over the weekend on the Monza circuit was the lack of straight line speed, crucial on such a fast sweeping circuit. Changes to the cars aerodynamics did result in some progress, but the lack of speed meant that Hughes would start the race from 11th place on the grid.
From the start the car ran strongly in the top ten, but the teething problems were to return at the first pit stop when the car's engine could not be restarted after refuelling and new tyres had been fitted. This was to be a problem for the team at every pit stop during the race which would lose them eight laps in total.
Despite the pit problems, the car ran reliably on track and Hughes and his team-mate Mario Haberfeld were able to climb the order to finish eighth in class and claim their first points.
"It's been another difficult weekend," said Hughes after the race. "But it's very pleasing to get our first point on the board. We've got some major aerodynamic problems to sort out and unfortunately that will take time, so we're going to be battling against that at the next race in Spa, Belgium in a couple of weeks."
The team is hoping to have some revised bodywork for the Le mans 24 Hours in June where straight line speed down the long Mulsanne straight is crucial towards a strong performance in the race.
Round 3 of the Le Mans Series will be at Spa high in the Ardennes mountains this weekend.
11:33am Tuesday 6th May 2008
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