Le Mans Series – Round 4 – Nürburgring – Saturday – Free Practice 3
A Positive Morning For Pescarolo

After a brief red flag early in the session (no damage apparent to any of the cars) it was a good start to the day for Pescarolo.  Despite pushing hard and looking a little ragged coming onto the pit straight on his quickest lap, Boullion almost matched team-mate Tinseau’s best time of the weekend so far down at 1:43.  “It is a big step forward compared to yesterday in terms of handling and comfort but it is not perfect.  We had bad understeer yesterday and that is much better but we are still fighting it on the bumps.  We shouldn’t complain though because we are getting there.”

The prospects of retaining the championship lead were looking good for Pescarolo.  Henri:  “It was all going well yesterday, it was just that we were working on old tyres for the race set-up and we have a good set-up now.  This morning we were very pleased with the car so we put some new tyres on and the time is good.  The [Lola] Aston Martins I think have less downforce; they have more speed on the straight but are not so good in the corners.  I think we have the right set-up.  Christophe seems alright in the car, he is pleased with the set-up and says he has no problems with the seat.  We need to make sure we don’t have any problems in the race, it is always difficult to be one car up against two or three.”

The Lola Aston Martins were still tripping over themselves to some extent (almost literally after a spin for Darren Turner in close proximity to one of the sister cars).  The quickest of these, #9, was still half a second off the French team’s best.  Tomas Enge: “It is alright, but we are trying to sort out the tyre situation for the race and find something that is going to work.  We are struggling for overall grip, but I think everyone is; even the Pescarolo was a little wide coming onto the start/finish straight.  We are a bit faster than them on the straight but we don’t have any more downforce to come, I wish we did!  It seems to be a tricky surface and we need to find a tyre and set-up balance that will work.”

Danny Watts put in a late 1:43.3 in the Strakka Ginetta Zytek to go second quickest of the meeting so far.  Showing his hand for another pole-position come this afternoon’s qualifying session?

Pla went significantly quickest of the meeting so far in P2, a 1:44.8 being no less than 2.6 seconds quicker than the P2 best yesterday.  RML and Speedy followed up, but were almost a second down.

In GT2 Johan-Boris Scheier all but matched the best Ferrari time from yesterday in the #99 JMB car, which was an encouraging performance from the 23 year old former French Clio Cup champion.  Bell and Lieb later took over at the top of the charts once again and it seems that barring problems, for a betting man, the GT2 winner must come from either JMW or the #77 Team Felbermayr Proton Porsche.   It was the Ferrari that held the advantage this morning, to the tune of 8/10ths.  Bell: “I was surprised by my laptime to be honest. I knew it was quick, but when it came up on the dash I thought ‘oh, it was dead quick!’ 

"We did two of those laps too and then had traffic so the outright pace is good.  I think we can find a bit more in qualifying, depending on the weather.  With the [Lieb and Lietz] Porsche, it may depend on which compound they go with  If they choose the harder one, we may have a slight advantage but you never really know.”

The Hankook car later split these two though and a strong showing from Kaffer and Simonsen in two of the three sessions so far means that it would be unfair to count them out of contention.  Simonsen explains: “It is going pretty well, we’re developing all the time.  We’ve been second fastest in two sessions and in the other one we tried something quite experimental.  Now we’re back on the line of the right direction and it seems that we’re in pretty good shape.  It’s the first year for these tyres and we’re up against those who have been doing this for years, so it is promising and really nice to be rewarded for your hard work.  We’ll certainly be looking for another podium, as always.”

Toni Vilander is indeed standing in for Jaime Melo, who is suffering from food poisoning and is still in the USA.  Vilander had his first laps of the Nurburgring ever this morning.
 
“I split the practice session with Antonio – for me it is a new team and new team-mates, and a new circuit, I have not been here before. I just tried to keep things simple, and get used to the prototypes, we got not have them in FIA GT. Once I knew they wanted me here I did not hesitate, it just meant I had to change the plan - I was going to have a nice quiet weekend with my girlfriend.”

The Saleen found yet more pace in the session, building to a 1:54.5 - Larbre finding an answer to the Corvette after all, though Goueslard all but matched it at the flag.

Grip did appear to be at a premium this morning, with several spins throughout the session, particularly into turn 1.  Those who have found a set-up to give them solid grip already will go into the 20 minute qualifying session with a distinct advantage.

PS