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Friday in the Ardennes

The dawn broke cold, damp and overcast at Spa, so nothing unusual there then. With the air temperature nudging three degrees, there was even a hint of sleet in the air as the teams arrived at the circuit in anticipation of two practice sessions and a generously proportioned grid.

The published entry list has shrunk by one, leaving the confirmed field at a nicely rounded 50. The missing car is one of the Formula Le Mans Orecas, the #44 with the two British drivers, Dean Stirling and Luke Hines. Apart from this late change, and the earlier withdrawal of the Beechdean Mansell Ginetta Zytek, the grid is one of the healthiest in years . . . thanks largely to the imminent timing of the Le Mans 24 Hours.

First Practice Session

With team manager and drivers' briefings completed the first of the weekend's three practice sessions began at just after midday. The rain had eased, but the track remained damp, and cold. Tommy was among some of the earlier drivers to take their cars out onto the rack, but it was ten minutes before even the slightest suggestion of a dry line began to appear.

First to show, in any serious way, was Danny Watts in the Strakka Racing HPD ARC-01 #42, clocking 2:31.253, and positioning the LMP2 car in amongst the LMP1 diesels. Second up with twenty minutes gone was the #40 Quifel ASM Ginetta Zytek, 2:32.699, and then the first of the Oak Racing Pescarolos, the #35 on 2:33.055. Tommy's first flyer; a 2: 34.908 was good enough for fifth, 12th overall.

RML AD Group | Spa 1000 kms | Friday Practice | Photo: David Blumlein

With Watts and Erdos returning to the pits for adjustments, and the track continuing to dry, the times continued to fall steadily. Olivier Pla (#40) was the first to better Watts' earlier time, posting 2:28.362, followed shortly afterwards by Moreau in the #35, leaving Watts third, Francioni in the #29 Racing Box Lola fourth, and RML's HPD-powered Lola fifth, but still in the garage.

Times continued at much the same level for a while, with drivers reporting no standing water, but no stable dry line either. Overall, it appeared to be a Peugeot benefit, with 908s lying 1, 2, 3 and 4, with Audis 5 and 6, the first Rebellion Lola 7th. Fastest time at the half-way stage was 2:19.824 from Pedro Lamy in the #3 Peugeot 908.

Danny Watts returned to the fray and clocked a 2:28.566 to reclaim second, narrowly behind Pla. Tommy Erdos and the #25 Lola HPD remained stationary in the RML garage while the engineers continued their fettling. He resumed the session at 12:36, just as Watts posted 2:27.882 to top the class times.

Tommy's first flyer, in his second "stint", was a 2:32.616. An improvement for the car, but still only fair for fifth. Watts, meanwhile, was back into the pits and handing over to Nick Leventis. Tommy's next flyer was a significant improvement, posting 2:29.044 to move third in class, seven-tenths behind Olivier Pla's best in the ASM Ginetta Zytek. He promptly returned to the pits.

In LMP1, the Peugeot exhibition continued, with Bourdais making improvements, then Olivier Panis, to slice seconds off the fastest times and level out near the 2:16 mark. Ten minutes of the session remained when the top ten finally became an all-LMP1 affair, with Ragues the last to make up the numbers, dragging the 008 Signature Aston Martin Lola up to 10th position overall, two seconds faster that Watts, topping LMP2. Mike Newton, meanwhile, had taken over the #25 Lola from Erdos.

Track nearly dry . . .

Times continued to fall evenly across the classes as the session drew to a close, thanks to the drying track. This was ably demonstrated by Alan Simonsen in the GT2 Hankook Ferrari, #89, who clocked 2:33.648 to move into LMP2 territory, and out-pace the entire GT1 grid. The suggestion was that the track had finally come to meet the needs of "inters", or even slick tyres, and this was proven by Ebbesvik in the #41 Bruichladdich Ginetta Zytek, who suddenly popped up from nowhere to go quickest in LMP1, with a best of 2:27.144. Tom Kristensen, aboard the #7 Audi R15, confirmed a dry line throughout the circuit.

RML AD Group | Spa 1000 kms | Friday Practice | Photo: David Lord, Dailysportscar

With awareness that intermediate tyres were good to go, all previous times became meaningless as Olivier Pla romped away with a 2:22.561 not only bettering Ebbesvik's best, but mixing the ASM Ginetta Zytek into LMP1 territory once again. Unfortunately, with only minutes remaining, there was nothing to be gained by anyone else coming in to change tyres. Anyone still on wets was obliged to make do, while those already on inters could exploit the improving conditions.

So, the session was rendered fairly meaningless in terms of times being set. Pla finally posted 2:18.166 to top LMP2 by a comfortable margin from Ebbesvik (improving to 2:22.621), leaving Leventis in the Strakka HPD third (albeit on Watts' earlier best) and Newton fourth on Tommy's time of 2:2:29.044. Overall, a finally flurry from Peugeot saw Panis post 2:14.068.

First Session - LMP2 Times

 #
 o/a
 Team  Car  Drivers
Session 1
1
40
5
Quifel ASM Ginetta-Zytek 09S Amaral, Pla
2:18.166
2
41
12
Bruichladdich Ginetta-Zytek 09S Ojjeh, Greaves, Ebbesvik
2:22.621
3
42
13
Strakka Racing HPD ARX -01c Leventis, Watts, Kane
2:27.882
4
25
14
RML AD Group Lola HPD Coupé Erdos, Newton, Wallace
2:29.044
5
35
15
Oak Racing Pescarolo - Judd Hein, Moreau
2:29.340
6
29
16
Racing Box Lola Coupé B09 Francioni, Pirri
2:29.438
7
24
17
Oak Racing Pescarolo - Judd Lahaye, Nicolet
2:30.278
8
27
19
Race Performance Radical SR9 - Judd Frey, Meichtry, Bruneau
2:32.293
9
30
20
Racing Box Lola Coupé B09 Judd Geri, Piccini, Piccini
2:33.167
10
39
24
KSM Lola B08/47 Judd de Pourtales, Noda, Kennard
2:35.200
11
36
37
Pegasus Racing Courage-Oreca AER Schell, Da Rocha
2:38.407

Tyre Manufacturer denoted by:
Dunlop
Michelin
Pirelli

In view of the relatively much slower performance from the Formula Le Mans cars at Spa, when compared with their more competitive pace at Paul Ricard, we shall not be posting FLM times with every session this weekend. The fastest this morning was the #45 Boutsen Energy Performance, setting 2:31.437 to stand 18th overall.

Top speeds for the first session have also been published, and make quite interesting reading. The "trap" is normally sited just before the breaking zone for the Les Combes complex, and this morning it recorded a top speed from the #13 Rebellion Lola of 276 kph (171 mph). The fastest in LMP2 was the Strakka Racing HPD, achieving 261 kph, equalled by the Quifel ASM Ginetta Zytek. The RML Lola HPD was third quickest in class, passing the beacon at 257kph. Interestingly, no speeds are stated for the factory Peugeots, although the Oreca privateer entry is recorded at 272 kph.

For up to the moment coverage, check Radio Le Mans. John Hindhaugh, Graham Tyler and Graham Goodwin will be offering nose-to-tail live coverage on every session of the weekend.

First Practice Session

The day's second session was supposed to start at 16:25, but various delays in the schedule knocked that back ten minutes. Tommy Erdos was keen and eager to get started and was among the first stream to take to the track. He was also rapidly up to speed, and had soon eclipsed his quickest time for the morning session, thanks not only to improvements in track condition, but also as a result of some chassis tweaks carried out by the RML technicians. Danny Watts was initially fastest in class, with Moreau (Oak #35) and Pla (ASM #40) also showing strongly, but then Erdos came screaming through in the #25 RML Lola to post his best lap of the afternoon. A highly impressive 2:06.858 was rapid enough to secure class fastest of the day and also outpace the 2009 pole time set by the Team Essex Porsche Spyder.

Job done, the Brazilian eased back into the pitlane and climbed out of the cockpit, allowing Mike Newton to take his place. Despite the fast time, Tommy wasn't totally happy. "There's a lot more time to come yet, even in these conditions," he said. "There was a slight issue with the brakes, and there was a significant variation in travel before they began to bite. I was having to pump the pedal. That did leave me thinking sometimes whether or not the brakes would be there for me at the end of the straight!"

RML AD Group | Spa 1000 kms | Friday Practice | Photo: Marcus Potts

Compensating for any lack of confidence he might have been feeling in the brakes, he had nothing but praise for the efforts made by the engineers. "We're so much closer now to dialling in this car," he smiled. "There's a sweet spot, and we're getting into that area now. It's nice to be fastest this afternoon, of course, but it's still early days yet. It does help that I just love driving here. This circuit is just made for racing, and you can't help but like it."

Team Manager Phil Barker confirmed his driver's opinion of the car. "There are certainly some elements of the set-up that we still need to address, but the chassis adjustments we made after this morning's first session have certainly improved the car, and we're moving in the right direction. From that point of view, things are looking very good, but if we'd not had the issue with the brakes, then I'm confident that Tommy would have been much quicker. We can have that resolved before tomorrow morning, and perhaps then I'll feel that we've done as much as we can."

Mike's later laps were not helped by a succession of red flags, caused by incidents at Eau Rouge and on the run down to Pouhon. "It's just so frustrating when red flags cut the time down to nothing useful," he said. "I only managed one lap that I'd class as worthwhile, so I'm looking forward to some more track time tomorrow."

RML AD Group | Spa 1000 kms | Friday Practice | Photo: Marcus Potts

Second Session - LMP2 Times

 #
 o/a
 Team  Car  Drivers
Session 1
1
25
10
RML AD Group Lola HPD Coupé Erdos, Newton, Wallace
2:06.858
2
40
11
Quifel ASM Ginetta-Zytek 09S Amaral, Pla
2:08.488
3
35
12
Oak Racing Pescarolo - Judd Hein, Moreau
2:08.881
4
42
13
Strakka Racing HPD ARX -01c Leventis, Watts, Kane
2:08.950
5
24
15
Oak Racing Pescarolo - Judd Lahaye, Nicolet
2:09.503
6
30
16
Racing Box Lola Coupé B09 Judd Geri, Piccini, Piccini
2:11.346
7
29
17
Racing Box Lola Coupé B09 Francioni, Pirri
2:12.196
8
41
18
Bruichladdich Ginetta-Zytek 09S Ojjeh, Greaves, Ebbesvik
2:13.142
9
39
19
KSM Lola B08/47 Judd de Pourtales, Noda, Kennard
2:15.696
10
27
20
Race Performance Radical SR9 - Judd Frey, Meichtry, Bruneau
2:17.574
11
36
31
Pegasus Racing Courage-Oreca AER Schell, Da Rocha
2:22.193

ACO Le Mans Press Conference

After the second session there was a brief press conference from the ACO concerning entries for next month's Le Mans 24 Hours. Over the last few days there has been some speculation over the participation of the two LMP1 Pescarolo chassis shortlisted for the race; one entered by Pescarolo Sport itself, and the second under the Sora Racing banner. The ACO spokesman confirmed that both cars had been withdrawn from the race.

In addition, Anthony Kumpen's Pekaracing Corvette entry had been in question, and this too has now been confirmed as a withdrawal.

In place of these absentees, three new teams have been invited to take up places on the grid. The first of these is the second AF Corse Ferrari 430 GT2, with the high-profile driver line-up of Giancarlo Fisichella, Jean Alesi and Toni Welander. The #39 Kruse Schiller Motorsport Lola will join the field in LMP2, while the gap in GT1 will be taken by the #60 Ford GT of Matech Competition. This will make a total of three of the new Ford GTs lining up for the race in June.

Le Mans Series 2010

Round 2, Spa Francorchamps
May 7th - 9th 2010


Friday 7th May

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