Nicolas Minassian

Nicolas Minassian
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Minassian at the 2012 6 Hours of Fuji
Nationality	French
Born	(1973-02-28) 28 February 1973
Participating years	1994, 2000, 2002–
Teams	Roland Bassaler, Team Oreca, Pescarolo Sport, Creation Autosportif, Peugeot
Best finish	2nd (2008)
Class wins	0

Nicolas Minassian (born 28 February 1973) is a French professional racing driver of Armenian descent.

After finishing 2nd place in the 1993 Formula Renault Eurocup, Marseille-born Minassian graduated to the French Formula Three Championship where he finished runner-up to countryman Laurent Redon at his second attempt in 1995. He then moved to the British series for another two years in a successful partnership with Promatecme and Renault UK that yielded a 4th place in 1996 and 2nd place the following year.

He graduated to Formula 3000 with West Competition for 1998, but failed to impress whilst his teammate Nick Heidfeld mounted a strong challenge for overall honours. The following year, he moved to Kid Jensen Racing where he enjoyed more success, including an emphatic lights-to-flag triumph at Silverstone. He signed for the illustrious Super Nova Racing team in 2000 where he came a strong 2nd in the championship.

Unable to secure a Formula One drive, Minassian drove in 2001 for Target Chip Ganassi Racing with F3000 title adversary Bruno Junqueira in CART and competed in the Indianapolis 500 before being released by the team. In 2002 Minassian won the ASCAR oval racing series for RML (Ray Mallock Ltd) before returning to endurance racing including the 24 Hours of Le Mans for such teams as Creation Autosportif and Pescarolo Sport.

In 2007 he became a factory driver for the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP diesel Le Mans prototype in the European Le Mans Series.

In 2008 he drove the Peugeot 908 diesel Le Mans prototype in the European Le Mans Series. He competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the Peugeot 908.

Racing record

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1994	Roland Bassaler	Patrick Bourdais Olivier Couvreur	Alpa LM-Ford Cosworth	LMP1 C90	64	DNF	DNF
2000	Mopar Team Oreca	Yannick Dalmas Jean-Philippe Belloc	Reynard 2KQ-LM-Mopar	LMP900	1	DNF	DNF
2002	PlayStation Team Oreca	Stéphane Sarrazin Franck Montagny	Dallara SP1-Judd	LMP900	359	6th	5th
2003	Pescarolo Sport	Éric Hélary Soheil Ayari	Courage C60-Peugeot	LMP900	352	9th	7th
2004	Pescarolo Sport	Sébastien Bourdais Emmanuel Collard	Pescarolo C60-Judd	LMP1	282	DNF	DNF
2005	Creation Autosportif Ltd.	Jamie Campbell-Walter Andy Wallace	DBA 03S-Judd	LMP1	322	14th	7th
2006	Pescarolo Sport	Emmanuel Collard Érik Comas	Pescarolo C60 Hybrid-Judd	LMP1	352	5th	4th
2007	Team Peugeot Total	Jacques Villeneuve Marc Gené	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP	LMP1	338	DNF	DNF
2008	Team Peugeot Total	Jacques Villeneuve Marc Gené	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP	LMP1	381	2nd	2nd
2009	Team Peugeot Total	Pedro Lamy Christian Klien	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP	LMP1	369	6th	6th
2010	Team Peugeot Total	Stéphane Sarrazin Franck Montagny	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP	LMP1	264	DNF	DNF
2011	Peugeot Sport Total	Stéphane Sarrazin Franck Montagny	Peugeot 908	LMP1	353	3rd	3rd
2012	Pescarolo Team	Sébastien Bourdais Seiji Ara	Dome S102.5-Judd	LMP1	203	NC	NC
2013	Pecom Racing	Luís Pérez Companc Pierre Kaffer	Oreca 03-Nissan	LMP2	325	10th	4th
2014	SMP Racing	Kirill Ladygin Maurizio Mediani	Oreca 03R-Nissan	LMP2	9	DNF	DNF
2015	SMP Racing	David Markozov Maurizio Mediani	BR Engineering BR01-Nissan	LMP2	340	14th	6th
2016	SMP Racing	Mikhail Aleshin Maurizio Mediani	BR Engineering BR01-Nissan	LMP2	347	11th	7th

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	DC	Points
1998	West Competition	OSC Ret	IML 19	CAT Ret	SIL 7	MON 9	PAU 7	A1 5	HOC Ret	HUN 4	SPA 19	PER 19	NUR	13th	5
1999	Kid Jensen Racing	IMO 13	MON Ret	CAT 8	MAG 14	SIL 1	A1R 3	HOC Ret	HUN 5	SPA 3	NUR Ret			6th	20
2000	D2 Playlife Super Nova	IMO 1	SIL 11	CAT 2	NUR Ret	MON 5	MAG 1	A1R 1	HOC 7	HUN 4	SPA 3			2nd	45
2003	Brand Motorsport	IMO 11	CAT	A1R	MON	NUR	MAG	SIL	HOC	HUN	MNZ			NC	0

(key)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	Rank	Points
2001	Chip Ganassi Racing	MTY 11	LBH 8	TXS NH	NZR 18	MOT Ret	MIL Ret	DET Ret	POR	CLE	TOR	MIS	CHI	MDO	ROA	VAN	LAU	ROC	HOU	LS	SRF	FON	27th	7

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Team
2001	G-Force	Oldsmobile	22	29	Ganassi

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	Final Pos	Points
2003	Team Dynamik	Holden VY Commodore	ADL	PHI	ECK	WIN	PTH	HDV	QLD	ORP	SAN 28	BAT 11	SUR	PUK	ECK																			44th	152
2012	Brad Jones Racing	Holden VE Commodore	ADE R1	ADE R2	SYM R3	SYM R4	HAM R5	HAM R6	PER R7	PER R8	PER R9	PHI R10	PHI R11	HDV R12	HDV R13	TOW R14	TOW R15	QLD R16	QLD R17	SMP R18	SMP R19	SAN Q	SAN R20	BAT R21	SUR R22 Ret	SUR R23 10	YMC R24	YMC R25	YMC R26	WIN R27	WIN R28	SYD R29	SYD R30	NC	0 +

+ Not Eligible for points

Year	Entrant	Class	Chassis	Engine	Tyres	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Rank	Points
2004	Creation Autosportif	LMP1	DBA 03S	Zytek ZG348 3.4L V8	D	SEB	MID	LIM	SON	POR	MOS	AME	PET ovr:Ret cls:Ret	MON ovr:Ret cls:Ret			NC	0
2006	Creation Autosportif	LMP1	Creation CA06/H	Judd GV5 S2 5.0L V10	M	SEB	TEX	MID	LIM	UTA	POR	AME	MOS	PET ovr:4 cls:4	MON ovr:3 cls:3		19th	16
2008	Peugeot Sport Total	LMP1	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP	Peugeot HDi 5.5 L V12 (Diesel)	M	SEB ovr:11 cls:4	STP	LNB	UTA	LIM	MID	AME	MOS	DET	PET ovr:2 cls:2	MON	9th	46
2009	Team Peugeot Total	LMP1	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP	Peugeot HDI 5.5 L Turbo V12 (Diesel)	M	SEB ovr:5 cls:4	STP	LNB	UTA	LIM	MID	AME	MOS	PET ovr:2 cls:2	MON		15th	46
2010	Team Peugeot Total	LMP1	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP	Peugeot HDI 5.5 L Turbo V12 (Diesel)	M	SEB ovr:2 cls:2	LNB	MON	UTA	LIM	MID	AME	MOS	PET			NC	0

Year	Entrant	Class	Chassis	Engine	Tyres	1	2	3	4	5	6	Rank	Points
2004	Creation Autosportif	LMP1	DBA 03S	Zytek 3.4 L V8	D	MON ovr:Ret cls:Ret	NÜR ovr:3 cls:3	SIL ovr:Ret cls:Ret	SPA ovr:3 cls:3			4th	12
2005	Creation Autosportif	LMP1	DBA 03S	Zytek 3.4 L V8	M	SPA ovr:Ret cls:Ret	MON ovr:7 cls:5	SIL ovr:2 cls:2	NÜR ovr:3 cls:3	IST ovr:3 cls:3		5th	25
2006	Creation Autosportif	LMP1	Creation CA06/H	Judd 2.5 L V10	M	IST ovr:Ret cls:Ret	SPA	NÜR	DON ovr:2 cls:2	JAR ovr:4 cls:4		10th	14
2007	Team Peugeot Total	LMP1	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP	Peugeot 5.5L Turbo V12 (Diesel)	M	MON ovr:1 cls:1	Val ovr:Ret cls:Ret	NÜR ovr:2 cls:2	SPA ovr:Ret cls:Ret	SIL ovr:1 cls:1	MIL ovr:1 cls:1	4th	33
2008	Team Peugeot Total	LMP1	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP	Peugeot 5.5L Turbo V12 (Diesel)	M	CAT ovr:1 cls:1	MON ovr:5 cls:5	SPA ovr:1 cls:1	NÜR ovr:2 cls:2	SIL ovr:Ret cls:Ret		3rd	32
2009	Team Peugeot Total	LMP1	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP	Peugeot 5.5L Turbo V12 (Diesel)	M	CAT	SPA ovr:1 cls:1	ALG	NÜR	SIL		19th	11
2010	Team Peugeot Total	LMP1	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP	Peugeot 5.5L Turbo V12 (Diesel)	M	CAS	SPA	ALG	HUN	SIL ovr:1 cls:1		22nd	15
2011	Peugeot Sport Total	LMP1	Peugeot 908	Peugeot HDI 3.7 L Turbo V8 (Diesel)	M	CAS	SPA ovr:2 cls:2	IMO	SIL	EST		NC	0
2012	Sébastien Loeb Racing	LMP2	Oreca 03	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	D	CAS ovr:2 cls:2	DON ovr:4 cls:4	PET				6th	30

Awards and achievements
Preceded by John Mickel	ASCAR Champion 2002	Succeeded by Ben Collins

Peugeot Sport 24 Hours of Le Mans driver timeline, 2007–11

Drivers	Stéphane Sarrazin (2007–11) Pedro Lamy (2007–11) Nicolas Minassian (2007–11) Marc Gené (2007–11) Sébastien Bourdais (2007; 2009–11) Ricardo Zonta (2008) Jacques Villeneuve (2007–08) David Brabham (2009) Anthony Davidson (2010–11) Franck Montagny (2008–11) Alexander Wurz (2008–11) Christian Klien (2008–09) Simon Pagenaud (2010–11)

Cars	908 HDi FAP (2007–10) 908 (2011)

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