ILMC/LMS, Silverstone - Free Practice 2 Report

All 49 cars put in some laps in the second free practice session at Silverstone this afternoon. After its electrical issues earlier today the #93 Genoa Racing FLM car was out as well.

Interestingly the fastest times were set by cars coming into the pit lane. For example Jaime Melo was over a second-and-a-half quicker on his in-lap. Fortunately the times aren’t counted as that would make it very interesting in qualifying.

Race control was very strict today in the second practice and a signal was sent out to all teams. Several cars had a warning for track limits and the #59 Luxury Racing Ferrari 458 Italia lost all of its times set in the first part for not respecting the track limits. Only a few minutes later the #60 Gulf AMR Middle East Aston Martin lost all practice 2 times as well....for speeding in the pit lane.

Allan McNish was the fastest driver in the opening minutes, his fastest lap time just a few tenths slower than the fastest time in session 1. Fifteen minutes into the session Sébastien Bourdais went quicker though and after McNish put in a fast lap as well the gap was just 0.037 seconds. McNish took back first position some 20 minutes into the session, before Bourdais put in an absolute stunning lap and stopped the clock at 1:44.945.

In LMP2 Olivier Lombard was the first driver to go quicker than in practice 1, but just before the halfway point the #26 Race Performance Oreca of Ralph Meichtry went around the track in 1:52.720, half a second quicker than the rest of the field.

During the final minutes of the session several LMP drivers improved, but no-one managed to beat the fastest times. Tom Kristensen ended the session in second place, 1.7 seconds behind Bourdais. The #1 Audi Sport Team Joest was third in LM P1.

Strakka Racing and Greaves Motorsport were second and third in LMP2, both half a second behind the Race Performance car.

In GTE Pro the Porsches were fastest in the first part of practice, but eventually they were beaten when Jörg Müller, Fred Makowiecki and then Rob Bell in the #66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari 458 Italia went quicker. IMSA Performance Matmut’s Nicolas Armindo was quickest in GTE Am, beating Nic Jonsson’s time towards the end of the session.

From the press room at Silverstone we say goodbye for now...as we hope to catch the bus to Northampton now, that one apparently stops at the media parking area. And if there is no bus...well, see you at Petit Le Mans then.