Sunday Review

First Session

The morning's driver and photographers' briefings were all punctuated by dire warning about the weather. Yes, it was bright and sunny at nine in the morning, but the forecast was for high winds, heavy rain and even snow before the day was out. In the end only selected parts of that prediction proved accurate, and even if the wind was fierce, the rain largely held off, and with that, so did the snow. It was, however, one of the coldest days ever experienced by hardened veterans of the Le Mans Series, and few had come prepared for the arctic blast from the north. The main straight at Paul Ricard is named after the Mistral for good reason, and today the cold northerly wind proved the validity of its reputation.

After such a successful and largely uninterrupted shakedown test at Silverstone less than a fortnight ago, RML AD Group's first session at Paul Ricard met an unexpected break very early on. The first half-hour was interrupted by a brief downpour anyway, but the rain soon eased enough for some of the early runners to post respectable times, but a seal on the Lola's fuel system developed a slight leak, and this had to be resolved before Tommy could take the car out for an extended run. "I went out at the start of the session, but almost immediately I could smell fuel, and it was getting stronger, so I came straight back in again," he said sagely. Once on track, however, all went smoothly, and it was a delight for everyone concerned to have the #25 coupé ticking off the laps in quick succession.

With several teams running new engine-chassis combinations, it was no surprise that the Quifel ASM Ginetta Zytek, last year's P2 titleholder, made the best of the early running. The P1 version, #5 in the hands of Greg Mansell, was also doing well, and the two traded top slots for some while before others joined the fray. Among these was the #6 Oreca AIM, which ended the morning fastest overall (on 1:44.954), and the luckily untroubled #13 Rebellion Racing entry.

In LMP2, the #35 Oak Racing Pescarolo Judd was vying with Danny Watts in the Strakka HPD ARX-01 for the rights to oust Quifel from the top slot, with Tommy's opening salvo quick enough for fourth. Occasional interruptions for offs and incidents brought brief respite from the constant drone of high-powered racing engines, and the second of these involved the #6 Oreca. On the restart, Strakka's Danny Watts finally outpaced the #40 Quifel ASM Ginetta Zytek to move fastest in P2, and not long afterwards Thomas Erdos set third-fastest for the class.

Although the rain had held off, the air was still damp. The surrounding hills remained swathed in thick cloud, and precipitation here was being blown in and across the track by the strong winds. Overhead, though, the bright sunshine continued to bathe the track in rich colours, against a backdrop of blue-black clouds.

The final LMP2 player to throw down a strong hand before lunch was the Bruichladdich Ginetta Zytek. For the last few years the Bruichladdich-sponsored squad has run Radicals, but this season they've joined forces with Karim Ojeh and last year's GAC Racing Team to operate the updated Ginetta Zytek. Fifth quickest in the morning would be their reward.

First Session LMP2 times

Second Session

Over lunch the clouds finally moved in, and their act of shrouding the sun seemed to double the effect of the wind chill. It was truly bitter out on track, and many teams admitted that the lack of warmth was severely restricting their ability to gather meaningful data. Tyres simply never got properly warm, but despite this, almost everyone running in LMP2 did manage to post slight improvements over their morning times. Significant among these was the Quifel ASM Ginetta Zytek, with Warren Hughes shaving almost a second off the grey-liveried car's best. "The track was actually slower this afternoon," insisted Tommy, "but people were improving their own understanding of the track, the conditions and their cars, and moving on, and that was responsible for the improvements in time, but it was no thanks to the track, that’s for certain."

This effectively denied Strakka the top slot, although the HPD chassis had looked very composed through the tighter turns. Down the straight, however, the RML AD Group Lola, with its similar HPD LM-V8 engine, had the edge in outright speed. "We’ve been running a Le Mans set-up today," explained Mike Newton. "As well as a low downforce configuration, the gear ratios we've been using are longer than we might usually use on this track. In this set-up there wasn’t a lot of difference in top speed between us and some of the P1 cars, but we’ll be moving towards a moderately higher downforce setting tomorrow (Monday) and concentrating more on collating data for our return here for Round 1 next month." Although the conditions are predicted to be better on Monday, the result today saw just a tenth of a second separating the two HPD-powered cars by the time the day's afternoon session drew to a close at half-six, with Thomas Erdos having found more than a second since the morning to post a best of 1:47.555.

"I’m very comfortable with the pace of the car, and we even aborted one lap that was four-tenths up on our previous best, but frankly, we’re not too concerned with lap times this weekend," insisted Phil Barker, the team's manager. "What is most important is that this test is allowing us to gain a better understanding of the way the chassis behaves on the new Dunlop tyres, but even so, it’s encouraging to be so close to the pace at this early stage in the year. I’m very pleased. The engine has been impeccable, and the technicians from HPD (Honda Performance Development) have fitted into the team remarkably quickly."

Tommy was also keen to point out that this weekend is the car's first real test. "I’m very encouraged. This is the first time we’ve been able to run the car on Dunlop’s slick tyres. Almost without exception, all our competitors have been testing for weeks, or months, and their preparation for the new season is way ahead of ours. With that in mind, I’m delighted with the progress we’ve made, and to be as competitive as we are today is excellent."

Someone else who was discovering much of this for the very first time was Andy Wallace. Recently confirmed as the team's third driver for Le Mans, and also the longer Le Mans Series events, Andy hasn't raced a Le Mans car with a roof over his head since he was with Team Bentley in 2002. "This is the first LMP car I’ve driven since Le Mans in 2008 (when Andy shared the MG Lola EX264 with Mike and Tommy) and my first ever run in the Lola coupé,” he said, but how did he rate it?

“The engine is so very good, of course, but I’ve not driven an LMP car for roughly twenty months, and there’s no doubt that the first aspect of the car that really impresses is the staggeringly excellent brakes, and how much grip there is through the corners.” Andy has spent the last two years doing most of his racing in the States, in the Grand Am series, and driving a Daytona Prototype. These cars are more powerful than an LMP2 car, but have little downforce, are not as aerodynamic, and don’t have the same ultra-efficient carbon brakes that the RML Lola employs. They may have a higher top-end speed, marginally, but without the downforce, and without the same braking capabilities, cannot match the cornering speeds that the Lola coupé takes in its stride. “The RML Lola is beautifully put together. It sounds, feels and handles like a modern, highly developed piece of technical engineering, but that’s not to detract from the DP cars I race in America. The whole concept behind the two ideas are so very different, and it’s being different that makes the world go round.”

We'll leave the last of today's RML AD Group comments to Mike. "The car continues to live up to all the promise we saw after the shakedown at Silverstone, and I’m impressed just how comfortable I feel in the car already, even at this early stage. I'm also comfortable with the narrow gap that exists between myself and the other two (Tommy and Andy). My pace is right in the zone I’d set myself, and this is just my first day in the car. Now I can really look forward to the opportunity to run under better conditions, maybe even tomorrow."

Second Session LMP2 times

There was the briefest of pauses at the end of the afternoon period before the night session began. Fifteen cars were booked in to take part in the run through to darkness, but in the end even some of these elected to stay warm in their garages and hotels, and just eleven participated. These few had to contend with a light dusting of snow, mid-evening, and only two or three cars pressed on to midnight.

The name Mistral actually means "masterly" in the local Languedoc dialect, and if the wind was master of the weather today, master of the track has been the #6 Oreca AIM - fastest overall in both daylight session, and posting a best of 1:43.259. The team's Peugeot 908 chased through in second, but almost exactly a second adrift. Third and fourth respectively were the #12 and #13 Rebellion Lola Coupés.

In GT1, the #52 Young Driver AMR Aston Martin DBR9 was quickest (1:57.390), while topping times in GT2 was the #96 AF Corse Ferrari 430 (1:59.391).