Saturday Morning Free Practice

Bright sunshine this morning ahead of the 60 minute free practice session with a bleary eyed dsc team less than fresh after the All Belgium panting, screaming and creaking championships were held in the hotel room above ours last night.

News from Virgo that the damage from Sean McInerney’s late session ‘off’ late in the session is fixed “It isn’t very pretty but it’ll do the job,”said team Principal Chris Warne (apparently he says that to all the girls!)

Radio Le Mans is on air, on the web at www.radiolemans.com and, as of this morning, on FM at the circuit on 106.2 FM.

The Kolles Audi Trucks have had their Audi vinyls reapplied this morning a full 20 cms lower than they were originally placed. – Now, all we need from the team this morning is the same level of detail placed on the set-up from the R10s and we’ll be good to go!

An entirely dry track this morning should see some properly representative lappery ahead of this afternoon’s qualifying session.

A couple of early dramas as the session begins, Jaime Melo cruising very slowly back to the pits in the Team Modena Ferrari (the car apparently lost a wheel and has damaged the front suspension beyond the team’s ability to fix it this session) and then Mike Newton, into the pit wall at the run down to La Source, the #25 RML Lola Mazda losing front bodywork and crunching the rear left corner too “The car just turned sharp into the wall, - Early news from the team is that the front and rear suspension are broken but the tub looks fine with Mike Newton stepping clear entirely unhurt.

Phil Barker told Mike Cotton that the car could have been readied in time for qualifying; but, with the team already facing a ten-place grid demotion as a result of changing engines, they had decided to take their time and make sure that they did the repairs properly. 

Another brief red flag soon afterwards (a spun racing Box Lola which rejoined as the red flags flew) was prefaced by at least a short period of clear running, several cars getting well up to speed. 

A 2:03.774 from Tomas Enge headed the times at the halfway point with 4 other men under 2:05 (Christophe Tinseau, Andrea Belicchi, Guy Smith and Bruno Senna.

The Reiter Engineering Lamborghini Gallardo GT2 with Christophe Bouchut at the wheel has pulled off the circuit.

The battle of the diesels meanwhile has the Peugeot boys responding to their bosses’ call to bring the cars back from the weekend in one piece, neither car troubling the top ten in early running but with Christian Albers getting the finally getting a Kolles Audi in amongst the pack, a 2:04.190 by far the most competitive lap of their season so far in the #15 car.

LMP2 saw Olivier Pla top the times at the same point in the session, 2:09.437 with Emmanuel Collard next up with 20 minutes to go.

He was soon at the top of the times though and was followed through into second by Giacomo Piccini in the #30 Racing Box Lola.  The young Italian pressed on though as the Porsche pitted - #30 the first LMP2 car into the 2:08s with a 2:8.590

Simon Pagenaud was the first Peugeot man up to speed, into the 2:04s in the #7 908, that was bettered though by ex Audi man Marcel Fassler the swift Swiss the second man into the 2:03s in the #13 Sebah Speedy Lola Aston.

3 minutes to go and Marcel Fassler grabs the top slot for the session, a 2:03.515 as Darren Turner makes it an Aston Martin powered 1,2,3.

Not for long though as Jean Christophe Bouillon pops up, first man under 2:03 (2:02.989) in the #16 Pescarolo Judd.

Danny Watts meanwhile caps a traffic-foiled final lap of the session with the fastest third sector time of all – something to savour ahead of qualifying.

Last lap of the session in LMP2 saw Casper Elgaard grab fastest LMP2 lap of the 60 minutes with a 2:07.557.

In the GT classes the Luc Alphand Corvette (2:19.728) ended the session ahead of the Murcielago.

The JMW Ferrari headed the order early on but was soon overhauled by Marc Lieb in the #77 Felbermayr Proton Porsche (2:21.180).