Piquet Jr joins Brabham, Garcia for 2006 Le Mans 24 Hours


Nelson Piquet Jr is set to compete in his first Le Mans 24 Hours race, the 20 year old Brazilian star lining up with co-drivers David Brabham and Antonio Garcia in the Team Modena Aston Martin DBR9 GT1 car running under the 'Russian Age Racing' entry. This marks the return of Piquet Jr to the wheel of this particular Aston Martin, which he drove to victory in the 50th Mil Milhas (1000kms) sports car event in Interlagos, Brazil, in January.

Piquet Jr received a last minute invitation to drive the Team Modena Aston Martin on Thursday and is already in Le Mans preparing for Sunday's tests. His partnership with Australia's David Brabham re-unites the Piquet/Brabham names 23 years after Nelson Piquet Sr won the second of his Formula One' World Championship titles for the Brabham team.

The Team Modena Aston Martin DBR9/101 is the most successful Aston Martin sports car in international racing and currently leads the Le Mans Endurance Series GT1 championship where it is run by Cirtek Motorsport. In its most recent outing it finished 2nd in the LMES event at Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium, three weeks ago with Spanish ace Antonio Garcia as lead driver. Garcia, Brabham and Piquet Jr face tough opposition in the GT1 category at Le Mans but the team is in confident mood with such a strong driver line-up now completed.

Nelson Piquet Jr
I was really happy to be invited to take part in this race to drive the Aston Martin and I am delighted that Team Modena thought of me to join the team with Antonio and David. I drove the car at the Mil Milhas in January and our team won, but it is a very different kind of car to drive than I am used to. I don't know this circuit so I will be working hard during tomorrow's test day to learn as much as I can and be prepared. There are lot of very good guys in the team and the other drivers have a lot of experience. Anything can happen in a race like this but I think we have a good chance to win our category. It's going to be a big challenge because this is something very different for me, but I love to learn and I love to drive, so for me this is an excellent opportunity.

Rik Bryan, Team Modena Aston Martin owner and Director
I am very pleased that Nelson has agreed to join us for Le Mans as it is rare for such a young and extremely talented driver to step out from a hectic season in GP2 to take on the challenge of the toughest long distance sports car race in the world. His performance in Interlagos last January showed his ability in the Aston Martin and to have him join David and Antonio is a terrific boost on the eve of the event. This weekend's testing will be very important given that there is only two weeks to go before the race. I would like to thank the Piquet Sports team for its cooperation and hope we give Nelson the support he needs to make a strong Le Mans debut.