Swiss Poles – All Three LMP Poles To Swiss Drivers

LMS Debut Poles for Lola Toyota, Oreca Nissan and TDS Racing.

LMP1 - Rebellion Toyota On Pole

The Aston Martin AMR One was first out on track of the LMP1s, Stefan Mucke finally posting a 1:52.267 in the seemingly evil handling #009 car, a mark that would leave the car outside the top ten starters.

Amongst the other four though there was movement aplenty, Jean Christophe Bouillon would be the first P1 in P1 on the timing screens, his early 1:48.4 in the #13 Rebellion Toyota would be as good as it got for that car and would eventually leave it in fourth fastest.

Next it was time for team-mate Neel Jani to hit the top with a 1:47.7, that was bettered almost immediately though by Manu Collard in the #16 Pescarolo Judd with a 1:47.3 as Olivier Pla’s first effort in the Quifel ASM Zytek was baulked by a somewhat dawdling Rebellion Lola.

Pla’s next 4 laps would be a 1:47.7, 47.8, 47.5 and 47.2 but that impressive consistency wouldn’t yield pole as Collard got the Pescarolo down into the 1:47.0s on two consecutive laps, his best a 1:47.026.

Olivier Pla “I am happy to be on the front row and we have a very good strategy for our tyres tomorrow.  I was a bit unlucky in traffic but in the end it is very close.  We are a bit out of horsepower but it is a six hour race and we will push hard and see at the end.  Miguel drove this morning and will do the warm-up too and he is comfortable and confident in the set-up and that is important.”

A fairytale return for Pescarolo Team though was ruined, first by Neel Jani as he powered the #12 Rebellion Lola Toyota around in 1:46.783, well enough to secure pole, the first overall pole position for the team in its current form and for the Toyota engine.

Later though things got worse as the Pescarolo was relegated to the back of the grid, the ride height restricting plank worn excessively it seems.

“That was a good start with lots of good things still to come, in particular on the aero front – We’re still running the 2010 package at the moment.”

LMP2 - Debut Pole For TDS Racing And the Oreca 03 Nissan

The HPD woes continue, RML pitted after an out lap with a fuel pump issue and Danny Watts could do no better than nowhere in the Strakka car.

The battle for pole would be exclusively conducted by the Nissan engined trio with TomKimber Smith ultimately unable to challenge the pair of Oreca 03s, the Englishman posting a 1:50.008 in the Greaves Racing Zytek to edge the fastest Judd engined car down to 4th fastest in LMP2, this the #40 Race Performance Oreca of Thor Christian Ebbesvik.

Tom Kimber-Smith “It went OK, we were a bit surprised with the [TDS] car doing a 1:48.9.  We seem to be losing around a second in the first sector.  We made a change from the last practice session to qualifying that will help us in race trim but not in qualifying.  Overall I think considering that a month ago the car was badly damaged in a crash and rebuilt from scratch, only shaken down on Monday this week, we have had no dramas, no failures so third is pretty good and I think our race pace is pretty good.”

Ahead though it was initially a session that looked to be going the way of the Boutsen Energy car of Dominik Kraihamer, 1:49.692 looked a reasonable stab at the task in hand but it would not prove to be enough as Mathias Beche improved, then improved again in the TDS Racing Oreca 03 Nissan, a 1:48.928 good enough for debut poles in the LMS for the team, chassis and engine and a class debut pole for Beche himself.

“I know that a lot has been said about the difficulty of overtaking in a P2 car this year but in all honesty I have been used to that for quite a while now in FLM so I don’t expect problems.”

FLM - Hope Racing and Nicolas Marroc Take It

It always looked likely to be a three car battle for pole and that’s how it proved as Elton Julian’s initial throw of the dice for the Genoa Racing squad was challenged but not bettered by Neil Garner Engineering’s Phil Keen (Julian’s 1:54.0 bettering Keen’s 1:54.4).

The surprise package was single seater refugee Nicolas Marroc, a decisive 1:53.659 getting within a tenth of Danny Watts’ best and securing a pole for Hope Racing and a clean sweep of LMP pole positions for Swiss drivers.      

GG