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.
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.
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!"
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."
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.