Disappointment for Burwell’s Oliver Jarvis after Le Mans crash puts team out of the running

Racer Oliver Jarvis suffered huge disappointment in this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours after he watched his Audi taken out of the race after less than two hours when placed third.

The 30-year-old, from Burwell, watched in disbelief when co-driver Marco Bonanomi, who had started their Audi R18 from fifth place on the 54-car grid but had stormed into third place, was hit up the rear.

A GT class Ferrari lost control on a slippery track due to a heavy rain shower, crashed heavily into the back of Bonanomi’s Audi resulting in instant retirement – even before the Cambridgeshire driver had driven in the race.

“I can sum up my feelings in one word – gutted,” said Jarvis, who had qualified the Audi an excellent fifth fastest – the best-placed R18 on the grid for the 82nd running of the twice-around-the-clock race.

“After practice, qualifying and up until the accident, I really thought that we were in with a shout of winning.

“We’d worked really hard on our race set-up and Marco was doing a great job in the opening two stints to put us in a great position to challenge for the win.

“To then be taken out of the race through no fault of our own is very hard to take on the chin. Le Mans can bite you and that is certainly what happened to me this year. We’ll look back knowing that at least we gave it everything we had.”

Jarvis, a former King’s Ely pupil, had twice finished in the top-three at Le Mans the previous two years after making his debut in 2010.

Despite his car’s early retirement, Oliver remained at the track to witness Audi score its 13th Le Mans victory from 15 starts with the second Audi Sport Team Joest R18 finishing second for the German manufacturer.