Modena claims top technical award.

Although unable to match the top ten result collected in 2006, Team Modena was given reason to smile at Le Mans after the British outfit was chosen by the Auto Club de L'Ouest as recipients of the Prix Escra for the best technical performance of any team at this year's race.

The team overcame a variety of issues, ranging from a damper failure to heavy damage to the #59 Aston Martin DBR9, as Antonio Garcia, Christian Fittipaldi and Jos Menten battled to a tenth place class finish and 17th overall.

Awarded annually, the prize covers a variety of categories from how the team presented the car at the start of the week through to how they reacted to incidents as the race unfolded. In a ceremony in the pit garage before the end of the race, four large trophies were presented to Team Modena members by the ACO, partly in recognition of the way the team had overcome damage to the car after a late night incident to continue in the race.

"All in all the team did well, not many teams would have recovered from an incident like Antonio's," team principal Graham Schultz, who spent the entire race on the pit wall as part of the strategy team, said. "The car had a lot of rear-end damage and it was a very technical repair, and the car was again running quickly afterwards. The guys were calm and calculated as they worked on the car - and that was what helped win us the award.

"After we had that incident it was a challenge just to finish, but as a team we are good at bringing a car to the finish. The guys did a great job and I feel disappointed - but proud of what we have achieved. We aim to be back next year."

Sporting director Rik Bryan added that the disappointment for the team came from the fact that the various problems throughout the race had prevented the Aston Martin from fighting for a place on the podium.

"Our car has come through another 24-Hour race and survived!" he said. "I'm disappointed, we had the car to be competitive and even get on the podium, but we haven't had the luck this time. I'm delighted for Aston Martin and Aston Martin Racing that they have won at last, both David Brabham and Darren Turner have driven for us a number of times and have come close before."