Le Mans Series – Barcelona – Friday Free Practice

The first 90 minute free practice session of the 2009 Le Mans Series season saw four different marques in the top four positions on the timing screens – and none of them were an Audi!

An early 1:35.014 from Stefan Mucke in the #007 Lola Aston Martin set the standard for the session with Jean Christophe Bouillon posting a time 33 thousandths slower just afterwards in the brand new, 2009 spec #16 Pescarolo. 

The new moniker for the Lola Astons appears to have been revealed with a peek at the chassis plates, alongside the Lola marking is another which decribes the car as an Aston Martin DBR1-2

Peter Hardman was a very welcome third fastest in the Strakka Racing Zytek just four thousandths ahead of Olivier Panis’s best time.

There was an early whoopsie form young Bruno Senna the #10 Courage Oreca car seemingly getting into a tangle with another LMP car on leaving the pits and clanging the barrier, mercifully without any real damage to either car or driver.

The pair of Kolles Audi R10s meanwhile were lapping in solid but unspectacular fashion.  8th and 17th overall in the order. Is this a matter of breaking in the new talent gently and with paternal guidance? – Surely not a lack of ultimate pace!

In LMP2 Olivier Pla made it a doubly good day for Zytek followers posting fastest time in class midway through the session, ninth fastest overall with a 1:37.241, just over 2 seconds off the top LMP1 pace.

Second and third in class were both Lola Judd Coupes, the #29 Racing Box car just pipping the #33 Speedy Sebah version, both in the mid 1:38s

GT1 saw Peter Kox’s early effort in the IPB Spartak Lamborghini top the times until the very last lap of the session when Yann Clairay grabbed bragging rights for Luc Alphand Aventures Corvette squad with a 1:46.354. 

The ARC Saleen had been languishing way down the overall order until late in the session when Sean Edwards posted a lap time that still left the car fourth in a class of four but close enough to leave the order looking close.

GT2 saw a gaggle of cars disputing the early order, Tom Coronel leading the way early on in the Spyker with the Ferraris of Simonsen, Beltoise, Bruni, Petrobelliand Garcia all taking turns before the Porsches got up to speed, Patrick Pilet initially leapfrogging the field before Marc Lieb set a time in the very low 1:50s that look set to win the day.

That reckoned without a late effort from Coronel in the Spyker, a 1:49.984 will see them dancing in the streets of Amsterdam (hopefully not the ones with canals in them) tonight!

In a session interrupted by a trio of red flags (the #43 Lucchini and #28 Ibanez Courages requiring assistance back to the pits and the Radical beached in avoidance of the Pegasus Courage (also beached) plus a drama at the pit exit as the session restarted for the final time which saw a massive cloud of white smoke from the KSM Lola, there were no lightning fast times but the session did give us the opportunity to see how the cars are matching up to each other and to their relative times on the same circuit and at the same point of the meeting, from last season. 

The fastest petrol LMP1 in the first session of the 2008 season was the Charouz Lola Aston with a 1:35.976.  The very same car, now in Speedy Sebah’s hands, was fifth fastest this time around, three tenths off its 2008 time with the 2009 aero and air restrictor changes into the mix.

2008’s LMP2 pacesetter was of course the Porsche Spyder and the 2009 times were well off that pace (more than 3 seconds slower).  The closest like for like comparison was the Speedy Sebah LMP2 Lola Judd, this car was second quickest in the first session last season and third quickest this year, a second down year on year.

The LAA Vette beat its class leading time of a year ago by around half a second in GT1 whilst in GT2, with the addition of a barn door Gurney flap and other assorted incumberances the Spyker’s session leading time was almost two second down on the Virgo Ferrari’s time of last year.  The fastest Ferrari meanwhile was over two and a half seconds slower than the 2008 mark and the now JMW run Ferrari was suffering with a persistent misfire.

An honourable mention here is due for the WR Salini, from Nowheresville in 2008 to a rapid climb up the lower LMP2 order in 2009’s first action, Tristan Gommendy doing the honours.  It would finish the session with a respectable 1:40.906, ahead of both of the Oak Racing Pescarolos and the Radical.

GG