Le Mans 24 Hours Test Day - Sunday Afternoon Session

The afternoon session kicked off at two o’clock, but not before there were some very frayed tempers in the paddock. With a whole spare week of days to choose from, between the test and scrutineering, the officials chose the Sunday lunch hour to stage a mock fire and security operation. A full complement of pompiers and their vehicles, complete with hoses and shiny helmets, sirens, alarms and a lot of shouting invaded the paddock, while fake smoke billowed out of one of the garages. In much of the surrounding complex, the doors were locked down, and nobody was allowed to come or go. A whole host of teams, drivers and (of course) the media had to go without their lunch, and more than a few were a little less than sympathetic.

The pitlane opened on time, but little more than a dozen cars took to the track. The rest had scanned the horizon and seen the incoming clouds, and waited. Five minutes later, and their wisdom was rewarded as the heavens opened. It was a brief downpour, but more than enough to make the track pretty treacherous.

All bar four cars returned to their garages to wait out what certainly looked like a passing shower. The skies duly cleared, and by half-two the track was starting to look busy once more.

The track was evidently returning to form, and André Lotterer posted a 3:28.451 (at about 14:45) in the #1 R18, to prove that the new e-tron ultra can manage a sub-thirty even on a slightly damp track. Rumour actually has it that the Hybrid is better in slightly damp conditions than the pure diesel, when there’s an advantage to having a little additional weight over the front wheels.

A 3:42.787 was a significant improvement for Luis Diaz in the #33 Level 5 HPD, and took the car through to the top of LMP2.

A lap or so later, we had a memorable moment at the sharp end, when Loic Duval posted a 3:26.561 in the #3 LMP1 Audi R18 to throw down the gauntlet for overall quickest. Then, as the flurry continued, André Lotterer clocked a 3:27.826, followed through just seconds later by Allan McNish, setting a 3:29.616.

Pre-lunch the DeltaWing posted a best in the mid three forty-sevens. Since lunch Marino Franchitti has been aboard the matt black #0, and steadily improving his personal best times. 21st overall perhaps flattered the car’s abilities, with ten potentially quicker cars still yet to complete an afternoon lap, but 3:53.170 was still a respectable time.

The activity from Strakka had been somewhat subdued, but explanation filters through that the team has been fitting a range of new components to “run-in” and test this weekend, and one of those is a gearbox. That was fitted during lunch.

Just into the second hour, the safety cars were deployed for what seemed to be a fairly modest incident. One of the #81 AF Corse Ferraris had gone off and was swiftly attended to, with medics on site to see to Piergiuseppe Perazzini. He was helped from the car while three safety cars circulated round the track. It was subsequently confirmed that this was another simulation, with the team having agreed to be used as a guinea pig to test the efficiency of the intervention vehicles and medical response units. Some minutes later Piergiuseppe clambered back into the car and was strapped back in by the marshals before firing up the engine and heading back out on track.

The consensus this time is that the simulation has been a sensible, well-timed and worthwhile exercise. It is even assumed that the marshals and support crew did not realise it was a test.

The day continued to go from bad to worse for the Lola Lotus crew. With a mere six laps under his belt, Kevin Weeda was stopped out on track in the #32, and according to the screen display, the car would be taken straight to parc fermé.

On-going dramas for Pescarolo as well, with Jean-Christophe Boullion having done most of the laps in the #16 03 this morning, despite “Stuart Hall” being shown on the screens. A clutch issue towards the end of the morning session required a replacement unit be fixed before the car could go out again.

The session resumed at 15:30.

Sam Hancock's first efforts of the session saw the Jota Zytek Nissan top the LMP2 times with a time identical, to the thousandth, as his fastest time in the morning session - 3:41.738.

After a no-show in the first session, the Norma finally appeared on track, with Philippe Thirion completing half a dozen laps in the Judd-powered car, including a bit of gravel-cross, to post a best of 4:04.815.

This was marginally slower than Scott Tuckers best in the #95 Level 5 HPD, the team owner posting a best of 4:02.495 to stand the HPD 36th overall, although he pushed the car beyond the limits in the pitlane to earn a summons to race control.

At roughly 15:40, we saw a new fastest lap overall from André Lotterer, his 3:26.468 being a tenth quicker than Dumas in the #3. Third overall was Lapierre in the #7 Toyota, but Allan McNish was gunning for that top-three slot. His 3:27.934 was a personal best for the #2 R18, but he’d also been setting some fastest overall sectors in his attempts to move above the Toyota.

Car 61 was involved in a major off in the Porsche Curves - Rui Aguas hitting the barriers fairly solidly across the rear right, and losing the rear wing either in the process, or perhaps the loss of the wing caused the accident?

Just before four, the #21 Strakka Racing HPD emerged for the first time, Jonny Kane listed as being behind the wheel. The car’s appearance went largely unnoticed as Allan McNish swept through along the main straight to record a new fastest lap – overall – of 3:26.240. For the first time all day we had a Hybrid one-two.

Throughout the field, sector times were turning blue (and occasionally purple, as Anthony Wurz proved by ducked under 80 seconds for the second sector, although he couldn’t carry that through to the full lap) and the order became much more fluid.

16:05 and there was a coming together between Jordan Taylor in the #73 Corvette and another unidentified car, with both cars reported to be damaged.

Interest in this incident, swept behind a barrier, was swamped by the first sub-twenty-six lap from McNish, posting an incredible 3:25.927 – and doing so without a single sector being fastest overall. The Scot just strung together the most smooth, consistent and, at the end of the tour, fastest lap to date.

A fastest lap from Jonny Kane, just the cars fourth of the afternoon, brought the #21 Strakka Racing HPD through to a respectable 9th overall; third in the unofficial petrol class. It was 16:15, and the first drops of rain were detected on the far side of the track. Almost simultaneously, the sweet spot seemed to sour in the overall track conditions, and those blue times became more elusive.

Confirmation came to us that Michael Krumm and Satoshi Motoyama had completed their requisite ten laps in the DeltaWing this morning, leaving Marino Franchitti to complete the opening two hours of the afternoon session. He shaved his best time down to a 3:48.271, which fell a little short of Motoyama’s best from the morning, but still maintained the DeltaWing’s status mid-field in LMP2.

With the rain falling on the far side, many teams elected to withdraw their cars until the conditions either cleared, or became more uniform. With the surface dry around the pitlane end, no single compound would find the track conditions favourable. A strange hush descended across La Sarthe, with just eight or ten cars left circulating.

For roughly quarter of an hour the hiatus persisted, with bright sunshine baking the tribunes either side of the pitlane while the track south of the Porsche Curves remained damp. Aside from those teams with drivers desperate to complete their minimum laps, most of the rest were waiting out the rain.

That situation eased at around 16:40. While the #1 Audi R18 was salvaged from the top end of the pitlane by a gaggle of red-suited mechanics, a steady stream of returnees headed out onto the drying track. One or two even posted new improvements, including the #15 Oak Racing Pescarolo and the #17 Pescarolo Dome. The Oak was one of two cars to sustain serious damage during the morning session, along with the #40 Race Performance Oreca.

Ten to five and Jonny Kane was one of few P1 runners to post an improvement. His 3:35.487 split the Rebellion Lolas and set the Strakka Racing HPD 8th overall.

Jumping up to fastest in GTE-Pro was Oliver Gavin in the #74 Corvette, moving ahead of the #59 Ferrari.

It was 16:50 when Pierre Thiriet ended up in the gravel trap at the first Mulsanne Chicane, sustaining damage to the right-front of the car, possibly a puncture. The Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca 03 was helped back towards the track by the marshals and returned slowly to the pitlane.

As the clocks ticked round towards five o’clock, the screens informed us of contact with the tyre wall or a barrier for the #2 car, Allan McNish in the cockpit, and then the CCTV showed him at Tetre Rouge, the R18 being hauled backwards to safety. McNish emerged from the car, removing his helmet and Hans device to signify that he wasn’t planning on getting the car back to the pits. Allan confirmed to the team that the incident was “driver error” and he’d clipped the left-hand side of the car.

Emanuel Collard brought the #16 Pescarolo 03 out onto the circuit after another extended stop. The team’s other entry, the #17 Dome, had been delayed by clutch problems, but was starting to set a more representative pace in the hands of Seiji Ara. Although still shy of the tail-end of the P1 group, the car was holding 15th overall.

17:17, and we had another incident in the Porsche Curves – Bruni in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari reported as having run wide and made contact with the barriers. The first red flag of the session began. Bruni had been lying third in GTE-Pro.

The afternoon saw three very similar accidents along the same section of the Porsche Curves, not long after the entrance to the Curves, but equally significantly this red-flag period posed potential problems for a number of teams – especially those with rookie drivers who had yet to complete their minimum ten laps. Looking casually down the list, there might be half a dozen drivers yet to achieve that objective, and risking exclusion from qualifying in ten day’s time.

The session resumed at 17:30

Marc Gene had a small spin at the Ford Chicane, but things were going much better for Olivier Pla, third quickest in LMP2 with a 3:42.036 for the #24 Oak.

Collard was also getting the Pescarolo 03 up to speed, posting a 3:40.385 to take the #16 through to eleventh – the whole top 11 by this stage were all P1 cars.

Dumbreck was also making strides after a troubled day, and moved through to tenth quickest in the #22 HPD. Collard also looked to be getting to grips with the new Pescarolo, and was consistently finding new fastest sectors.

Marcel Fassler should have made some improvements for the #1 Audi, but kept encountering traffic – typically, one of the FLM cars. He followed that with the fastest middle-sector time of the session, up to that point. Having endured the best part of an hour or more without any significant improvements, the final twenty minutes were starting to heat up.

Minassian then rounded out the top 12 by bringing the Dome through to join the rest of the class, clocking 3:39.865 and pairing up with Collard, to give Henri the kind of final hour that he must have been hoping for.

Sébastien Loeb moved through to fifth quickest in LMP2. The team has been participating in the test simply for the experience – they could not gain an entry at this late stage.

With ten minutes to go, the #12 Rebellion Lola was reported as running slowly through the Porsche Curves – no evidence of any obvious problems, but was then recorded as exceeding the pitlane speed limit.

As the final laps were run, several of the key players started to throw down fast times again. Alexander Wurz made some sector improvements, including a purple middle-sector, but with nearly every car out on the circuit, finding a clear run through traffic was getting harder, and his lap tailed off. Fassler was facing the same issues, when the red flags waved again. The #44 Starworks HPD Enzo Potolicchio hd been involved in an incident at the first element of the Dunlop Chicane. There was evidence of damage to the rear of the car, and a deranged tyre wall.

The session would not restart, so an emphatic day's work for Audi, with a 1-2-3 finish and the e-tron quaottro on top form. That said, Toyota gave an impressive debut performance, and there's enough of a hint of more to come yet. The encouraging thing is that there's every indication of a race in prospect. See Graham's review of the day's events for more thoughts on today's official Le Mans test.