Asian Le Mans/ILMC, Zhuhai – Saturday Morning Notes
More Rain

And lots of it.

The DSC crew had been in China for 36 hours when they arrived at the ZIC for the start of Saturday’s proceedings and the rain had been almost constant over that time; and at this point it was as hard as ever, meaning that we would have to wait a bit longer to see what this country looks like without cloud-cover that began at an altitude of 20 feet. With 30 minutes to go until third free practice, the main question being discussed in the press room was whether or not practice would take place, or if it did, whether anyone would take part.

The schedule for the day was FP3 at 10:00, followed by qualifying at 14:30-15:20, with a press conference in between. The infrastructure was in place for simultaneous translation (French-English? French-Chinese? English-Chinese?), and hopefully this time the ACO would actually have something to say, unlike at Silverstone in September.

Three German cars were waiting in the rain in the pitlane below the media centre as ten o’clock approached, while on-board cameras indicated that at least one Peugeot - #1 – was ready to go at the other end of the garages.

As it turned out, the majority of the field took to the track in the first five minutes of the session; including, encouragingly, the Tokai University Courage, although it was straight back into the pits at the end of its outlap.

The #99 Gulf Team First Gallardo was an early casualty, with Roald Goethe finding the gravel bed at T14; and as soon as he was dragged out, Alain Li dropped the #97 UA Audi at the same spot.

With 15 minutes gone, the only no-show was the RSR Jaguar. The two Peugeots topped the times (#2 ahead of #1 by 0.036s), with the two Audis in third and fourth.

The four diesels were covered by 1.4s, but Jonny Cocker was close again; just 0.9s behind the McNish R15 in the Drayson Lola. Fastest lap at this point was 1:35.132.

Two minutes later, Dindo Capello had just set his fastest second sector when he dropped the #8 Audi into the T11 gravel, having understeered off. The car was recovered and the Italian returned it to the pits – no obvious damage evident – where it was swiftly pulled into the garage for a check-over.

Jaime Melo’s #95 AF Corse Ferrari was the fastest GT2 runner – and the first car behind the top five P1s – with the #47 FLM of Steve Zacchia and Pat Long’s hybrid Porsche close behind.

The JLOC Lambo was the faster of the GT1s, while Alex Yoong headed GTC in the #98 KK Performance Audi.

Conditions were slowly improving out on track and the laptimes were improving commensurately. Sarrazin was soon into the 1:31s, while Tom Kristensen was about a second further behind in the #7 Audi. Cocker managed to get as high as third at one point, before Simon Pagenaud improved, and despite Romain Dumas’ best efforts the Lola ended the session ahead of the #8 R15.

At around the halfway point, the Jaguar finally put in an appearance, with Marc Goossens at the wheel; and it was soon joined on the track by the Tokai Courage, which was soon circulating regularly, if not quickly.

Although the rain was now little more than drizzle, the track remained very wet. Richard Westbrook was another to leave the track - this time at T1 - but the ProSpeed Porsche missed the gravel trap and the Englishman rejoined after a slow trip across the sodden turf. With two minutes to go, however, the Belgian car was stuck in the T11 gravel.

The #96 United Autosports Audi ground to a halt at T10 with ten minutes to go; “We ran out of fuel,” said Richard Dean. “We were exploring the limits of the fuel and it looks like we found it.”

Aside from fuel and gravely excursions, all 23 cars seemed to have survived the third session without major incident. The JLOC Lambo finished the fastest of the non-LMP1s, while the OAK, Hope Polevision and Porsche AG cars all finished in the top half of the timing screens.

MH