LMS - Valencia - Qualifying Report
Peugeot (By Miles), Zyteks Third And Fourth
Ayari In GT1, Lietz In GT2

On a tighter, shorter track, you wouldn’t expect the margin of the Peugeots over the rest to be as great as at Monza, and this time one Peugeot (Gene’s – 1:23.489) had a second or so over the fastest petrol-powered LMP1 (Hayanari Shimoda in the Zytek), the other 908 more like half a second – but as at Monza, the Peugeots demonstrated markedly faster pace than in free practice.

Pole man Marc Gene explains why: “In practice we run full fuel tanks and old rubber, because we’re always working on the race set-up. In qualifying, the fuel is low and we run new tyres. I can’t explain why we gain more time than the other cars. Perhaps they were trying harder in practice than we were.”

Gene and Pedro Lamy set the times in the two 908s, and they set them right at the start of the 20 minute session. “It wasn’t a perfect lap,” said the Spaniard. “I overtook one car and lost between two and three tenths. On the next lap I had a lot of traffic, so I tried again on the next lap, but the tyres were past their best by then.” He emphasised the point that the team was well prepared for this weekend, having tested here earlier this year.

Joao Barbosa was third early on in the Rollcentre Pescarolo, but his 1:26.5 was eventually only good enough for ninth on the grid. With Alex Yoong qualifying the Charouz Lola (“Stefan [Mucke] is really on it these days – but he’s at Silverstone today,” said Sam Hignett), and this being his first meeting in the Lola Judd, a 1:26.5 was a good start, improved to 1:26.084, seventh fastest. Perhaps Mucke would have been in the 1:24s?

Then it was what we’d been waiting for, as the LMP2s started to show their form. Tommy Erdos set an impressive 1:25.946, and he was third fastest overall, for now. The Brazilian ended up sixth though, Michael Vergers, having predicted a 1:25.7, then suggested that maybe he might be able to lap quicker than that, set the LMP2 pole with a 1:25.606. Spot on. Third fastest – and the two best P2s were third and fourth overall, behind the coupes.

Tommy Erdos: “We extracted what we could out of the car today, and with what we’re learning about the new aero kit, we can only build on that and get better. It’s nice to be the first Lola on the grid!”

Phil Barker (team manager): “Tommy pulled out another special lap for us today. He did predict to me this morning that he could perhaps do a twenty-five, so I’m delighted that we were able to prove him right. The start will be the difficult moment – it’s the only point where the P1 cars really have the better of us, and I’d not be surprised to see us eighth or ninth into Turn 1.”

There were still two interlopers to come at the top of the timesheets though. First up was Shimoda in the Arena Zytek (LMP1), with a 1:24.594 – so now we had Zyteks third and fourth fastest. The #16 Pescarolo was late out – but Romain Dumas was circulating with five minutes to go, and the Frenchman set a 1:25.617, fractionally slower than Vergers’ P2 pole – so Dumas’ prediction regarding P2 pace was largely correct.

The Swiss Spirit Lola Audi was no quicker in qualifying than it was this morning, and will sit alongside the Charouz car on the fourth row. So the top eight reads two diesels, two Zyteks (one from each class), a P1 Pescarolo, a P2 RML MG Lola and two of the P1 Lolas – an interesting mixture.

Before qualifying, Bruichladdich’s Stuart Moseley commented that “yesterday Michelins had the better of it, but this morning, ourselves and ASM improved a lot and over the race distance we’ll be right there. We’re looking at a lap in the 1:26s” – and that’s what he set, a 1:26.920. The ASM Lola on its Dunlops set a 1:26.7, these two tenth and eleventh.

Last of the cars in the 1:26s was the factory Courage, then we had five cars in the 1:27s, in the order Binnie Lola Zytek (Buncombe), Primat in #17 Pescarolo, Gounon in the del Bello Courage, the RfH Dome and the Kruse Pescarolo.

Jan Lammers was obviously trying hard (witness a spin), but Jeroen Bleekemolen reckoned that “this is the worst track for us. We need long straights.” The team also lost a lot of set-up time yesterday with brake problems.

Just into the 1:28s were Warren Hughes and Bob Berridge respectively in Embassy Radical and Chamberlain-Synergy Lola. The T2M Dome finally managed to put four laps together – but sadly stopped on its fifth, and qualified at the back. Have the drivers qualified though?

The GT1 and GT2 session was unlikely to match the changes among the prototypes – and the two classes ended up as they looked within the first few minutes. Soheil Ayari took the pole in GT1 for Oreca, Richard Lietz the GT2 for IMSA Matmut. Ayari improved on his very early 1:32.457, with a 1:31.953, and that was pole, by seven-tenths ahead of Cioci in the other Saleen. The Alphand Corvettes were split by the Modena Aston Martin, so that left the Larbre Aston Martins sixth and seventh, Bouchut a second faster than Franchi in #51. Neither DBR9 has created a real impression here yet though.

Ayari: “The car was perfect. I did a lap without traffic. It’s not often you are able to put all the good parts together.”

Partner Stephane Ortelli suggested that the Aston Martins would be much more competitive in the race. Larbre had changed springs on the Bouchut car before qualifying, but the rear end was too nervous. “I locked a rear wheel and had a half spin,” said Christophe Bouchut.

GT2 pole man Richard Lietz: “We did the same time in qualifying as we did in practice this morning (1:36.7s), but (I think) the Ferraris chose a harder tyre for qualifying.”

The top three was initially Lietz, Lieb and Simonsen, but the IMSA and Felbermayr Porsches were joined by Dirk Werner in the Farnbacher car to make it a Porsche 1-2-3. The Dane in the Virgo Ferrari led the 430s in fourth to sixth, tailed by Zardo in the Villorba car and Hernandez in the #97 GPC car.

Dirk Werner was still smiling about his Grand-Am win at VIR last week – and passed on the German term for the second and third gear corners that predominate here: scheisshauskurve. There aren’t many of those at VIR.

Beltoise was seventh for Perspective and Porsche, then the Ice Pol Ferrari then Tom Kimber-Smith in the fastest Panoz. TK-S was trying hard right up to the chequered flag – as was Richard Dean in the other LNT Panoz, which was late out after an engine change after this morning’s session. Dean got in one flying lap – and then just about started another before the flag fell, to get into the 1:39s. Between the two orange Panozes were the #88 F-P Porsche, the two Spykers and Johnny Mowlem in the #83 GPC Ferrari.

Sean McInerney got the Chad Panoz on the grid, the #79 F-P Porsche set a time (but will it start?) and the JMB Ferrari was the last qualifier, Bo McCormick happily admitting this morning that he and Basso are “here to learn”.

The Chad team had had another drama this morning, John Hartshorne finding a GPC 430 rolling into his path, after the Italian car had spun. More damage for the crew to fix. Qualifying was the first uneventful session for the team.

So that’s the relative / absolute speeds of the cars sorted out – but as everyone keeps suggesting, the race is also going to be about staying out of trouble.

Stuart Moseley suggest though that Valencia is actually less of a problem with traffic than Donington Park was last year. “It’s very difficult to pass a GT car all the way from Redgate to McLeans at Donington, because it’s such a flowing track and cars sweep from side to side. Here it’s more point and squirt, so it’s easier to pass.”

You have to be decisive (when overtaking),” added Robin Liddell, “having driven GT cars I understand that situation.”

So commitment needed when passing, a fast reliable car, a strong driver pair/trio, a good team – just some of the things needed for success in endurance racing. We’ll see how it all pans out tomorrow. What will be interesting to see will be how the organisers cope with cars in the gravel, just off the tarmac. Local yellows – or safety car periods? It’s been the former so far. Either way, the marshals are going to be waving their yellows fairly consistently on Sunday.