Christophe Tinseau (born 18 December 1969) is a French racing driver from Orléans.

Christophe Tinseau
Tinseau in 2011
NationalityFrance French
Born18 December 1969 (1969-12-18) (age 54)
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years1998-2003, 2007-2009, 2011-2012, 2016
TeamsPanoz Motorsports
DAMS
Team Cadillac
Riley & Scott Racing
Pescarolo Sport
Thiriet by TDS Racing
Best finish7th (2008)
Class wins0

Tinseau began racing professionally in French Formula Renault in 1991. In 1992 he moved to French Formula Three and in 1993 he placed 4th in that championship with 2 wins and finished 10th in the Macau Grand Prix. In 1994 he was the championship runner-up in French F3 and in 1995 he moved up to Formula 3000 where he finished 16th with 7 race starts. In 1996 he improved to 6th in F3000, winning the season-ending race at Hockenheim. In 1997 he raced in Indy Lights but only managed an 11th place championship finish, ending up on the podium once at Circuit Trois-Rivières. After the seeming decline in his open-wheel fortunes, Tinseau moved to sports cars for 1998 driving a Panoz Esperante GTR-1 for DAMS, making his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut. In 1999, still with DAMS he piloted a Judd powered Lola B98/10 for and won two races in the Sports Racing World Cup. From 2000 to 2002 he drove the historic Cadillac Northstar LMP at Le Mans, finishing 5th in class in 2001. He competed part-time in various series from 2003 to 2005, but returned to full-time racing in 2006 when he finished 6th in Porsche Carrera Cup France. He made 6 Le Mans Series starts and finished 6th at Le Mans for Pescarolo Sport in 2007. He continued with the team in 2008 and finished 7th at Le Mans and 8th in LMS points and continued with the team in 2009, finishing second in Le Mans Series. In 2010 he competed in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series, finishing eighth with one win. In 2011 he returned to Le Mans Series with Pescarolo and finished fourth in the championship. In 2012 he competed in a handful of major endurance races, and since then has been largely retired.[1] He has founded a racing school for ice racing.[2]

Racing record

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Complete International Formula 3000 results

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

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Pos. Pts
1995 Mythos Racing Reynard 95D Zytek-Judd SIL
9
CAT
6
PAU
Ret
PER
Ret
HOC
7
SPA
7
EST
10
MAG
14
16th 1
1996 Apomatox Lola T96/50 Zytek-Judd NÜR
8
PAU
Ret
PER
3
HOC
4
SIL
6
SPA
6
MAG
9
EST
11
MUG
11
HOC
1
6th 18

Complete American Open Wheel racing results

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(key)

Indy Lights

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Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Rank Points
1997 Conquest Racing MIA
25
LBH
26
NAZ
14
SAV
12
STL
12
MIL
21
DET
11
POR
4
TOR
5
TRO
3
VAN
18
LAG
6
FON
12
11th 49

Complete FIA GT Championship results

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

Year Team Car Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Pos. Pts
1998 DAMS Panoz GTR-1 GT1 OSC SIL HOC DIJ HUN SUZ
5
DON A1R
7
HOM LAG 24th 2
2001 Freisinger Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3-RS N-GT MNZ BRN MAG SIL ZOL HUN SPA
Ret
A1R NÜR JAR EST NC 0

24 Hours of Le Mans results

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Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
1998   Panoz Motorsports Inc.
  DAMS
  Éric Bernard
  Johnny O'Connell
Panoz Esperante GTR-1 GT1 236 DNF DNF
1999   Team DAMS   Franck Montagny
  David Terrien
Lola B98/10-Judd LMP 77 DNF DNF
2000   Team DAMS   Marc Goossens
  Kristian Kolby
Cadillac Northstar LMP LMP900 4 DNF DNF
2001   DAMS   Wayne Taylor
  Max Angelelli
Cadillac Northstar LMP01 LMP900 270 15th 5th
2002   Team Cadillac   Wayne Taylor
  Max Angelelli
Cadillac Northstar LMP02 LMP900 345 9th 8th
2003   Riley & Scott Racing   Jim Matthews
  Marc Goossens
Riley & Scott Mk III C-Ford LMP900 214 DNF DNF
2007   Pescarolo Sport   Harold Primat
  Benoît Tréluyer
Pescarolo 01-Judd LMP1 325 13th 6th
2008   Pescarolo Sport   Harold Primat
  Benoît Tréluyer
Pescarolo 01-Judd LMP1 362 7th 7th
2009   Pescarolo Sport   Bruce Jouanny
  João Barbosa
Pescarolo 01-Judd LMP1 368 8th 8th
2011   Pescarolo Team   Emmanuel Collard
  Julien Jousse
Pescarolo 01-Judd LMP1 305 DNF DNF
2012   Thiriet by TDS Racing   Pierre Thiriet
  Mathias Beche
Oreca 03-Nissan LMP2 353 8th 2nd
2016   SRT41 by OAK Racing   Jean-Bernard Bouvet
  Fréderic Sausset
Morgan LMP2-Nissan UNC 315 38th N/A

References

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  1. ^ Christophe Tineseu, Driver Database, Retrieved 2015-02-07
  2. ^ Ice Driving by Tinseau Archived 2015-02-08 at the Wayback Machine (in French), Retrieved 2015-02-07
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