Nurburgring – Friday Round Up
That’s It For Friday

Firstly a correction – the report that Jan Lammers’ road car had been stolen was incorrect, although his bags have been stolen from the car. His day didn’t get any better this afternoon, after an early session coming together between David Hart (in the RfH Dome) and Joel Camathias (in the JWA Porsche) “Hart hit me hard in the braking area at the end of the main straight,” said a mightily irritated Camathias.

His irritation won’t have been helped any by the standing orders at JWA which states that for each pound of gravel removed by each mechanic, the driver at the wheel at the time of the incident will buy a pint of foaming ale. By the look of things at the rear of the JWA garage Joel Camathias is going to be standing a rather large round this evening.

The Porsche though had sustained no real damage, but the Dome had damage to both the floor and sidepods, the RfH crew setting to work immediately.

Another prototype in trouble was the #40 Quifel ASM Lola, the car spotted by Peter May making its way back to the pits with its rear wing missing.

Giovanni Lavaggi meanwhile was unwilling and/or unable to confirm the identity of the second driver aboard his eponymous #3 car. The car seemingly lost a wheel on its out lap this morning but posted rather more respectable times in the afternoon session.

It was all smiles though in the Charouz Lola camp, Stefan Mucke setting the fastest petrol-fuelled time of the day (1:46.016) at the very end of the session.

“It’s great to drive at my home race here, particularly as I haven’t driven on the long (GP) circuit since Formula 3 about five years ago, DTM only used the shorter format.

“There is much more to come from the car here this weekend, with some minor tweaks, and perhaps one or two bigger tweaks too! That’s not to say that the team haven’t given us a good car, it’s practically brand new, with almost everything changed since Le Mans, the guys have done a fantastic job.”

Jan Charouz too was bubbling with anticipation after his debut Le Mans 24 Hours: “It’s a fantastic race and of course I want to get back there, and I hope with a chance to win it someday. I was very happy with the times I was putting in, the team seemed pleased with my consistency in my night stints.”

The young Czech ace was very straightforward about the incident at the exit of the second chicane which cost the team several laps, after a spin into the barriers caused damage front and rear. “It might have been a mistake by me through tiredness (it was his in-lap at the end of a triple stint) or it could have been mud or oil on the track or perhaps even a puncture. After a good run it was a bad way to end it but the team did very well to get us back out there.”

Chris Warne at Virgo Motorsport was delighted to report that the team had tested some Dunlop development rubber back to back with a tyre that both Rob Bell and Allan Simonsen were familiar and happy with and had pronounced the new tyres both quick and consistent.

Michael Vergers meanwhile was quite happy despite finishing the session further down the order than he is used to in the #32 Barazi Epsilon Zytek: “We are running today on tyres which have done a couple of stints at Le Mans and we also have some gear ratios that were perhaps too optimistic (we can barely get into sixth gear) so there is a lot more to come tomorrow.”

Sean McInerney meanwhile was quietly pleased with progress aboard the Chad Peninsula Panoz: “After our Valencia fire we had to wait quite a while for some replacement parts so that bit into our potential for pre-race testing. We’ve had a fairly decent run today though. The car is certainly easier to drive now and the team has done some good work to shield and wrap things to reduce the issue of heat in the cockpit. We know the key is consistency but we also know that we’re playing catch-up. We’ll certainly be testing before Spa and that should help enormously.

Last comment for today – Andrew Cotton tells us that the Audi argument is the same as the Peugeot one, that is that both could make a petrol-fuelled P1 car that is faster than their diesels. Discuss. Perhaps it’s simply down to budget.