LMS - Monza - Sunday Morning Notes and Starting Drivers

First item this morning is a significant one for LMP2. The polesetting #40 Quifel ASM Lola has been relegated to the back of the grid after post session scrutineering discovered that the 15mm minimum under the car’s plank had been ‘exceeded’.

Second item is a significant one in LMP1 with the news that Phil Keen has withdrawn from the Rollcentre Pescarolo, the very quick young Englishman finding himself uncomfortable in the car and taking the decision “in the best interests of the team this weekend.”

Martin Short said to dsc this morning that “I’m disappointed that he’s out of the car. He’s a very fast driver but I both understand and respect his decision. We’ll be doing something together soon.” The Rollcentre car will race with just a two man driver squad today.

For the race, polesitter Nicolas Minassian is predicting that the Peugeots can run a 1:37 or 1:38 race pace. Other drivers observe that the Peugeot has no real advantage in terms of top speed here, but that its downforce and subsequent cornering speed is vastly superior to other LMP1 contenders.

The warm up session saw the whole grid take the opportunity to get some more valuable track time, this session usually giving a reasonable indication of race pace for many of the teams.

If that’s the case then Minassian’s estimate was bang on the money: the two 908s were both in the 1:37s with Bouillon’s Pescarolo next up but almost two seconds slower than the faster of the two Peugeots.

It was a relatively uneventful session in LMP2, de Castro topping the times for the Quifel ASM Lola outfit, little compensation though for the teams relegation to the very back of the grid.

GT1 saw the racing Box Saleen in the hands of Marco Cioci top the times for a while but order was restored when Goueslard (#72 Corvette) and finally Ortelli (Oreca Saleen) found their feet.

GT2 saw minor dramas for the #79 Felbermayr Porsche 996, a spin into the gravel, and some lost front bodywork for the Chad Peninsula Panoz.

The fastest of the GT2s this morning was the Virgo Motorsport Ferrari, Rob Bell just edging out Marc Lieb in the lead #77 Felbermayr Porsche, this duo ahead of Mowlem, Caffi, Kox and Kimber-Smith in a closer matched and more varied top order than we have seen all weekend so far.

It seems that this race is going to be determined by two major factors: Are the Peugeots as reliable as they are fast? (At the moment it seems not with a couple of unexplained (by the team) hiccups.) and traffic – when all the cars are on track the Monza circuit looks a very busy place.

The starting drivers for the race (which starts at 1pm Monza local time) are as follows:

#3 Lavaggi
#7 Gene
#8 Lamy
#12 Cochet
#13 Gounon
#14 Lammers
#15 Mucke
#16 Bouillon
#17 Tinseau
#18 Barbosa
#19 Berridge
#20 Rostan
#21 Moseley
#25 Erdos
#27 Van De Poele
#31 Buncombe
#32 Vergers
#35 Jouanny
#40 de Castro
#44 De Pourtales
#45 Hughes
#50 Bouchut
#51 Zacchia
#55 Ortelli
#59 Garcia
#61 Cioci
#72 Policand
#73 Dumez
#76 Lietz
#77 Pompidou
#78 Caffi
#79 Felbermayr Snr
#81 Kimber Smith
#82 Dean
#83 Drudi
#84 Sean McInerney
#85 Janis
#88 Christian Ried
#89 Thyrring
#90 Werner
#92 Beltoise
#94 Kane
#95 Camathias
#96 Simonsen
#97 De Simone
#98 Bouvy
#99 McCormick