Unfortunately, Mssr Gounon had other ideas. At the start, in his eagerness to get to the very front and challenge for the lead, he grazed the right side of my car, steering me straight into the pitwall on the left-hand side. Amazingly, this all happened well before we'd even reached the start/finish line! The damage was substantial. As for Gounon, he led the race at the first corner, having started on the third row of the grid . . .

What followed I can only describe as a bunch of highly skilled professionals doing what they do best. The RML mechanics were already helping the marshals remove the stricken car from the pit straight before I'd managed to walk back as far as my pit box. Most people who witnessed the damage thought it was "game over". I knew that if the tub was not damaged the lads would put it right in record time, and luckily it was still structurally intact, and they set out to repair the car. 48 minutes later (and 30 laps down) I drove out of the pits. What a brilliant effort from the RML crew! They showed their superb skills at Le Mans in 2005 and now they'd done it again in Istanbul. I have no doubt I drive for the best team in the Le Mans Series. In less than an hour not only was the car repaired, it was immediately competitive, and I was able to get down to fast times straight away. What seemed the impossible, turned into 3 valuable points, which could be very important for the Championship.

Once again Mike showed his pace against the opposition, lapping as fast as anyone in LMP2 during his double stint. His was another great performance from someone who's competing amongst some very experienced "full-time" drivers, several of whom have been racing in international motorsports for many, many years.