Le Mans Series, 6 Hours of Le Castellet - Saturday Free Practice 3

Free Practice 3 was an encouraging session for Aston Martin.  After the beginnings of a fire on the AMR One’s debut (and only) lap yesterday, the team worked late into the night and as a result all three drivers were able to experience a handful of laps each.  There were no apparent issues, but there is still a lot of speed to come, they ended the session 11th with a 1:53.399.

George Howard Chappell post session was keen to stress that success for the AMR One programme here will be measured in mileage and not in terms of comparative competitiveness:

“We’ll probably be making some major changes between sessions, even in between warm-up and the race and possibly even during the race!"

“We’re staying on here to test on Tuesday so will be doing much more of the same."

And where would you say most progress needs to be made before Spa?

“Without a doubt we need to make progress with the engine in terms of reliability.  We’re running it here in a very conservative spec after a few teething problems when we ran it in anger for the first time at Dijon last week!  This is also our first time running a car with the bigger front tyres so that’s a pretty steep learning curve too.”

The car here is actually AMR’s second chassis, the original car is “already built and back at base.” 

That compared with Jani’s 1:46.810, the fastest time so far this weekend, set after an inauspicious installation lap when the doors didn’t close properly.  Pla was next with a 1:47.512, despite that time being set when the screens showed that yellow flags were displayed, then Collard just 11 thousands further back.  Boullion was fourth on a 1:48.733.

Julien Jousse post session was very happy indeed with the equivalence between the petrol powered P1s but there are figures emerging from the Peugeot test which tell a potentially extraordinary story about the LM spec 908!

It was a beautiful morning, but after a cold night temperatures started low, both track and air temperature climbing 4 degrees during the hour to end at 16 degrees track, 18 degrees air.

#46 was dominant in P2 in the hands of Beche, his 1:49.206 saw him interloping with the P1s for much of the session and over a second clear of Kimber-Smith in the Greaves car.  Race Performance, Boutsen and Pecom were covered by the next half second but everyone else was distant.  Top speed traps showed RML at 265kmh, Strakka at 266kmh and the quickest in class, the Zytek Nissan at 282kmh.  By comparison, Armindo in last year’s GTE Am class Porsche hit 273kmh…

The story here for the HPDs was stark – The top LMP1 car and Top LMP2 car separated by around 2 seconds, the top 5 in LMP2 separated by around 1.5 and the fastest LMP2 separated from the fifth fastest other LMP2 by a full further 3 seconds!

Armindo’s 1:59.073 was easily enough to lead GTE Am again, although Robert Kaufmann got within a second on his final lap.

Armindo was second in GTE overall for a time, but then we saw some big improvements from those at the bottom of the pile, which yesterday had been Young Driver and AF Corse.  Some stern warnings for Vilander over his treatment of where the circuit was and wasn’t seemed to be just what he needed as he then leapt to second in class with a 1:58.908, way faster than this car’s best so far.  It didn’t last though, hot-lap specialist Enge leapt from bottom to top with a 1:58.262, similar to last year’s best GT2 time in practice 3. 

“We’re where we expected to be!  The team has been working through the programme getting Christoffer and Alex time in the car.  We have a pretty equal team in the driving squad so we look quite good for tomorrow but the real task is getting ready for the Le Mans Test and hoping that we get into the race.”
 
Lietz responded but could only improve to a 1:58.407 and Pilet popped a 1:58.315 in on his final lap to finish second.  Walker continued into the 2:01s early on, before the faster times came, Bell then did a 1:58.962 for fifth, just ahead of Fisichella.  The #51 car couldn’t find any improvements after a coming together with the CRS car, damage to the front and rear of the car and a broken wheel and rear suspension, the 430 suffering minor damage to the front left corner.

The traditional difference of opinion between proponents reigned here – Bruni maintaining that he was hit by Hummel, the CRS squad instead fielding in car video which seemed to show the amateur driver moving over to avoid the 458 but being hit nonetheless by the fast closing Bruni.

In FLM Julian and Keen were the only ones to get to 1:55 and beyond, Julian best of the weekend and just half a second off last year’s class qualifying time on a 1:53.453, the Genoa Racing man getting in amongst the HPDs!