Thomas Laurent

Thomas Laurent
Thomas Laurent
Nationality	French
Born	5 April 1998; La Roche-sur-Yon (France)
FIA World Endurance Championship career
Debut season	2017
Current team	Signatech Alpine Elf
Car number	36
Former teams	Jackie Chan DC Racing, Rebellion Racing
Starts	22
Wins	3
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	2nd (LMP2) 3rd (LMP1) in 2017, 2018-19
Previous series
2015-18; 2016; 2016	Asian Le Mans Series; European Le Mans Series; Porsche Carrera Cup France
Championship titles
2017-18	Asian Le Mans Series

Thomas Laurent (Born 5 April 1998)[1] is a French racing driver who currently competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for French team Signatech Alpine Matmut and in the European Le Mans Series with Graff Racing. He finished second in the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans and third in the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Career

2015

Born in Le Roche sur Yon, Laurent stepped out of karting aged 17 in late 2015. He competed in 3 of the 4 rounds 2015-16 Asian Le Mans Series with Jackie Chan DC Racing alongside Ho-Pin Tung and David Cheng. They won all three races, but Laurent was only ranked second in the championship as Tung and Cheng won the opening round without him, leaving Laurent with a 25-point deficit.

2016

Laurent raced in the 2016 European Le Mans Championship in LMP3 for YMR in a Ligier JS P3 alongside Alexandre Cougnaud and Yann Ehrlacher. He finished 8th in the championship despite three retirements, and took a dominant win in the final round at Estoril.[2] He also entered the Road To Le Mans race that year for DC racing, alongside Cougnaud. Laurent took over the car in the lead and pulled away to win the race.[3]

Laurent returned to the Asian Le Mans Series for the 2016-17 season. He raced in LMP2, again for DC Racing alongside Tung and Gustavo Menezes. He missed the first round (which Tung and Menezes won in his absence) before they came second and first at Fuji and Buriram respectively. This left the #35 car with an 18 point lead coming into the final round. However they retired after a first corner accident, and lost the title. Laurent placed seventh in the drivers title.[4]

2017

In 2017 it was announced that Laurent would race in the World Endurance Championship in the LMP2 class. He is driving for Jackie Chan DC Racing in a Jota Sport run Oreca 07 alongside Tung and Oliver Jarvis.[5]

After winning on his debut at Silverstone and finishing third at Spa, Laurent had an impressive run at Le Mans. After helping his team get into the LMP2 lead, Laurent inherited the overall lead due to problems with LMP1 cars. In the end he won Le Mans in the LMP2 class, finishing second on the overall podium. He added to his win count with a dominant victory at the Nurburgring, but then finished ninth in class in Mexico due to a clutch issue. More successful races followed at the Circuit Of The Americas and Fuji with fourth and third placed finishes respectively.

It was announced that Laurent was awarded an opportunity to drive a Toyota LMP1 car in the Bahrain Post-season test.[6]

2018

Laurent has a contract dispute with DC Racing, because he signed with Rebellion Racing.[7] Despite this he with Harrison Newey and Stéphane Richelmi took the 2017–18 Asian Le Mans Series title in the LMP2 category.[8] He got a green light to race for Rebellion in 2018-19 FIA World Endurance Championship, competing behind the wheel of Rebellion R13 car with Mathias Beche and Gustavo Menezes.[9] He finished his first LMP1 race on podium behind two hybrid Toyotas.[10]He will join the Signatech Alpine team in the upcoming season.

Racing record

Complete European Le Mans Series results

Year	Team	Class	Car	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	Rank	Points
2016	M.Racing - YMR	LMP3	Ligier JS P3	Nissan VK50VE 5.0 L V8	SIL Ret	IMO 5	RBR 10	LEC Ret	SPA Ret	EST 1	8th	36
2020	Graff	LMP2	Oreca 07	Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8	LEC 9	SPA 2	CAT	MNZ	ALG		3rd*	20*

^* Season still in progress.

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

Year	Entrant	Class	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Rank	Points
2017	Jackie Chan DC Racing	LMP2	Oreca 07	Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8	SIL 1	SPA 3	LMS 1	NÜR 1	MEX 9	COA 4	FUJ 3	SHA 4	BHR 2	2nd	175
2018–19	Rebellion Racing	LMP1	Rebellion R13	Gibson GL458 4.5 L V8	SPA 3	LMS 3	SIL 1	FUJ Ret	SHA 5	SEB 7	SPA 2	LMS 5		3rd	114
2019–20	Signatech Alpine Elf	LMP2	Alpine A470	Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8	SIL 2	FUJ 6	SHA 4	BHR 4	COA 6	SPA	LMS			7th*	64*

^* Season still in progress.

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2017	Jackie Chan DC Racing	Ho-Pin Tung Oliver Jarvis	Oreca 07	LMP2	366	2nd	1st
2018	Rebellion Racing	Mathias Beche Gustavo Menezes	Rebellion R13-Gibson	LMP1	376	3rd	3rd
2019	Rebellion Racing	Nathanaël Berthon Gustavo Menezes	Rebellion R13-Gibson	LMP1	370	5th	5th

gollark: Does anyone else wonder if they may just end up confusingly merging into the same thing over time?

gollark: The correct term for "unbased" is actually "debased" or "acidic".

gollark: 🤣ing to your own jokes is highly uncool in many cultures.

gollark: There are probably loads of cool old animal species we don't know about because they never got fossilized/found.

gollark: I don't really know much about old animal stuff, though my brother is into dinosaurs.

References

"Thomas Laurent: Racedriver biography - career and success". www.speedsport-magazine.com. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
"G-Drive Wins Estoril; Steals LMP2 Title from TDS – Sportscar365". Retrieved 2017-11-06.
"DC Racing Duo Win Road To Le Mans Race – dailysportscar.com". www.dailysportscar.com. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
"Algarve Pro Wins 4H Sepang, Asian LMS Title as DC Racing Retires – Sportscar365". Retrieved 20 May 2018.
lm@endurance-info.com. "Jackie Chan DC Racing Driver Line-Up Announced | Endurance info English spoken". www.endurance-info.com. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
"Laurent To Test With Toyota At Bahrain – dailysportscar.com". www.dailysportscar.com. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
Dagys, John. "DC Racing Disputing Laurent's Rebellion Contract". sportscar365.com. John Dagys Media. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
Kilshaw, Jake (4 February 2018). "DC Racing Sweeps Asian LMS Season; Wins Title at Sepang". sportscar365.com. John Dagys Media. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
Dagys, John (5 February 2018). "ORECA-Built Rebellion R13 Gibson Confirmed". Sportscar365. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
Dagys, John (5 May 2018). "Alonso Holds Off Conway for Toyota 1-2 at Spa". sportscar365.com. John Dagys Media. Retrieved 20 May 2018.

External links

Thomas Laurent career summary at DriverDB.com
Official website

Sporting positions
Preceded by Andrea Roda	Asian Le Mans Series LMP2 Champion 2017–18 With: Harrison Newey & Stéphane Richelmi	Succeeded by Paul di Resta Phil Hanson

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[1] "Thomas Laurent: Racedriver biography - career and success". www.speedsport-magazine.com. Retrieved 6 November 2017.

[2] "G-Drive Wins Estoril; Steals LMP2 Title from TDS – Sportscar365". Retrieved 2017-11-06.

[3] "DC Racing Duo Win Road To Le Mans Race – dailysportscar.com". www.dailysportscar.com. Retrieved 20 May 2018.

[4] "Algarve Pro Wins 4H Sepang, Asian LMS Title as DC Racing Retires – Sportscar365". Retrieved 20 May 2018.

[5] @endurance-info.com. "Jackie Chan DC Racing Driver Line-Up Announced | Endurance info English spoken". www.endurance-info.com. Retrieved 20 May 2018.

[6] "Laurent To Test With Toyota At Bahrain – dailysportscar.com". www.dailysportscar.com. Retrieved 20 May 2018.

[7] Dagys, John. "DC Racing Disputing Laurent's Rebellion Contract". sportscar365.com. John Dagys Media. Retrieved 20 May 2018.

[8] Kilshaw, Jake (4 February 2018). "DC Racing Sweeps Asian LMS Season; Wins Title at Sepang". sportscar365.com. John Dagys Media. Retrieved 20 May 2018.

[9] Dagys, John (5 February 2018). "ORECA-Built Rebellion R13 Gibson Confirmed". Sportscar365. Retrieved 5 February 2018.

[10] Dagys, John (5 May 2018). "Alonso Holds Off Conway for Toyota 1-2 at Spa". sportscar365.com. John Dagys Media. Retrieved 20 May 2018.