Le Mans Series – Round 4 – Nürburgring – Friday – Catch Up & Free Practice 2
A Dry Run

Going into the evening in Germany and it was more like the dawning of a new day; bright, warm, little fluffy clouds and, most importantly, the prospect of some meaningful running from the off.

Stories from along the pitlane were unanimous in relation to the first session, largely a case of biding time until the dry running began.  Stefan Mücke confirmed the Lola Aston Martin strategy.  “It didn’t make much sense to go out in the wet; we’re mainly looking at the next session which will be most useful because of the weather for the weekend.  It was a good opportunity for the new drivers to get some laps in, but we’re looking to the afternoon to find some balance on the right tyres and see how it is.”

Rob Bell: “It was a bit disruptive with the conditions as they were, but the sun was out at the end and it really dried up.  By the end there were still two places where little rivers were running across on the hilly parts, meaning you had to catch the car a little; but to be honest it didn’t affect the times much.  We still need to do a little work, it isn’t perfect, but everyone will be in the same boat.  If we had to race tomorrow, then we’d be good; but we’ll be looking to make some improvements.  I’m not getting too excited yet.”

Kolles’s Andy Meyrick was keen to add a little more significance to the earlier session, his day now being done.  “The weather forecast here is always useful, but you can never rely on it.  I’ve been around here before and it reminds me just how awkward it can be with the conditions.  We’ve got some good pace though so I’m looking forward to the weekend.  If we do have some rain in the race then we have some good data.”

Team-mate Charles Zwolsman confirmed the optimism in the camp.  “Conditions have been ever changing, it is good to get going but the afternoon session is for me.  Here at Kolles we try to keep one driver in the car for much of the session so we can do several changes to setup in the session.  When you change drivers, you can’t do any changes at the same time or you’ll never figure out what’s what.  We haven’t tested since the last race but we had good pace there and if it wasn’t for the incident early on we’d have had a podium.  Hopefully here that’s what we’ll get - it would be nice to get one car on, but which one, I don’t know.  Both cars on the podium would be a great result for Audi at their home circuit.”

An Ibanez engineer stated that the decision not to run in the first practice session was purely weather related; “We were just waiting for the right conditions to do the work.”  Indeed, all 38 cars put a turn in under the gently sinking early evening sun.

Pescarolo will be trying to nurse Tinseau’s rib through at least 45 minutes of the race to ensure that he is eligible for vital championship points.  Lola Aston Martin’s three car presence, aimed at ensuring minimum points for Pescarolo, adds even more intrigue to this situation.

JMB Racing’s third driver, sharing with Hartshorne and Kutemann is Johan-Boris Scheier.  Conflicting details exist regarding Team Modena’s third driver – reported on the timing sheets as Jaime Melo but on the latest printed entry list as Toni Vilander.  No time to get to the bottom of this one before the lights went green though and, if the screens are to be believed, only Garcia and Mansell ventured out in the second session, finishing fifth overall.

At the front of GT2 Lieb and Bruni picked up where Lietz and Bell had left off in the first session, straight into the low 1:59s.  It was almost 20 minutes before times dropped below those of the first session in the other classes though.  Stefan Mücke’s statement of intent was first and final with a 1:43.514.  This was a dominant and conclusive lap with best sectors of the day in all three sectors.  Pla then bettered his P2 leading time from the earlier session by 4/10ths and then Clairay put the Corvette fastest of the day in GT1 again, initially half a second faster than the Saleen had managed earlier today, then over a second.  The Saleen doesn’t appear to have an answer to the Corvette after all.

At the head of GT2 Marc Lieb restored German pride with a 1:58.290 in his 997, 6/10ths clear of JMW Motorsport’s Ferrari.  Things were looking up for Porsche in more than one way with the IMSA Matmut moving up to third place (from sixth in session 1), 3/10ths further back.

With half the session gone, the Lavaggi broke down in the entry to the pitlane.  Giovanni was not blocking it, but would certainly be hindering any chance of a quick in-lap. 

Kolles were again looking strong in P1 - second for #14 and fifth for #15 - and Pescarolo were again in the mix.  Drayson likewise in GT2; fourth in class in the Aston Martin for much of the session, though dropping a couple of places by the end.

Pla chipped the best P2 time down yet further by the end of the session with a 1:47.556.

There was little real drama in the session, other than harmless spins for Amaral and Ibanez.  As Amaral recovered though Erdos put the RML Lola ahead in P2 with a 1:47.408 before handing over to Mike Newton for the last 10 minutes.  P2 looks set to be a great fight, the G.A.C. Zytek holding third place.

With six minutes remaining Danny Watts sprang the P1 Ginetta Zytek from sixth to second, with a 1:44.520. 

P1 was nicely poised too then, with Lola Aston Martin leading Ginetta Zytek; Audi #14 2/10ths back and then the Pescarolo a further 2/10ths back.

PS