LMS – Spa 1000 Km – Qualifying Report
2:00.105

This was as fiercely competitive, in all four (five) classes as we had hoped it would be – with the poles going to Nic Minassian, (Stefan Mucke), Tommy Erdos, Stephane Ortelli and Marc Lieb.

The LMPs were out first, and after five minutes we had Pescarolos 1-2 (Boullion and Tinseau, either side of 2:05), then Gounon, then Tommy Erdos with a 2:06.795 – which was almost the LMP2 pole. The Brazilian did go slightly faster, a 2:06.660 – and only Vergers came close (in a couple of ways).

The first Peugeot, Nic Minassian at the wheel, set its first flying lap after seven minutes – bang, a 2:00.105, and that was pole position. Minassian did try again – and again – but the other two laps were a 2:00.343 and 2:00:127. All three laps were faster than Stephane Sarrazin could manage (2:00.557) in the #8, when he appeared a little later.

“The car was unbelievable, a joy, and it is very special to drive a car that is so good here,” said the pole man. “It is a very special place. Here we can really use the downforce and the car feels amazing.”

On being asked whether he was disappointed not to break the two minute barrier: “When I completed the first lap I took a quick look at the readout on the dash and thought WOW! That’s fast!! So I tried of course to go a little faster but then made a little mistake. Of course when you are that close you want to go under the two minute barrier but I am not too disappointed.”

So the interest in LMP1 became – Who would head the petrol-fuelled cars?

Jean-Christophe Boullion’s 2:04.806 was going to be in the mix (his first quick one was a 2:04.916) – but not quick enough. Two drivers challenged him, for what would turn out to be his fifth on the grid, but two others beat his time, and it was a great scrap between hard chargers Stefan Mucke and Hayanari Shimoda. Mucke took the honours in the end, with a 2:04.220, but Shimoda ran him very close with a 2:04.264.

Stefan Mucke explained the different set-ups of the two cars (his team had clearly been following the opposition very closely, naturally).

“In the first and last sectors, we are much faster than the Zytek, but it is faster in sector 2. The second sector is very long (about 57 seconds), and you have to be fast there – as well as on the straights in the first and last sectors.

“It is not easy to find the right balance for the whole circuit, and today we ran with a little more downforce than we had yesterday – but we think it is important to be fast on the straights, to make overtaking easier.”

For comparison, the two Courages were way down in sector 2, but fourth and fifth and third and fourth in the first and third sectors, respectively.

Stefan Mucke indicated that he might just have broken 2:04 – maybe. “There was a yellow on my first lap (the Pilbeam had spun), and my third lap was my best lap, but by then, the tyres had lost their edge.”

So it’s really four seconds between the Peugeots and the best of the petrol cars.

The two to challenge Boullion’s time were Jonathan Cochet and JC-W. Cochet was faster than Gounon, by six-tenths, the Courages reinforcing the form they’d shown at the ‘Ring – with some suspension developments having taken place in the last few weeks.

The Creation team was thrilled with JC-W’s seventh best time, a 2:04.902. Ian Bickerton: “For a Dunlop-shod new car, that was a mega job. We’ve got the new suspension on the car, which we only tested this week. I told Jamie that if he did a 2:04.9 I’d love him to bits.”

Gounon and Tinseau were the only two LMP1s in the 2:05s, then it was Erdos, Barbosa in the Rollcentre Pescarolo, then the bulk of the LMP2s. Bob Berridge was happy enough with a 2:08: “I only did two laps this morning and three yesterday, after we lost the first session. That’s not enough to take on this lot.”

The LMP2 story was really Erdos against Vergers (2:07.137) – with a twist. “Yesterday, I felt he hindered me a bit,” explains Michael Vergers. “I was on a fast one, and he pitted very slowly. On my first lap this afternoon, the Pilbeam spun, I backed off and let people past, then picked up speed at Stavelot. I thought he would catch me at Blanchimont, and he must have thought that I blocked him – he was clearly a bit annoyed.

“We both did our times on the next lap, me about 200 metres behind him, but down the back straight he backed off – then he saw me coming and accelerated again and pulled in front of me. Then he backed off.

“I’m a bit disappointed, to be honest. We could have been on pole – the car is very quick.”

Thomas Erdos saw the situation a little differently, not least because he was completely unaware of any incident on Friday when he might have hindered Vergers in the Zytek. "If that happened, I'm very sorry, but I certainly wasn't aware of anything like that happening. If Michael felt I held him up, he should have come and spoken to me. It's certainly no excuse to carry that kind of feeling over into a qualifying session."

Erdos certainly felt that the Dutchman had spoiled what could have been his fastest lap. "He'd been going so slowly that the marshals were even waving white flags," said Erdos about the incident in qualifying. As Erdos came round the corner he said that the Zytek suddenly eased out into the middle of the track and started pulling away, but nowhere near as quickly as the up-to-speed MG. "He could easily have got out of the way, but he didn't," bemoaned the Brazilian, who had been forced to brake, and thereby abort what would have been his quickest lap. "He's a really nice guy," he added. "We’re friends, I think - not socially, but good enough, and I was sure he'd never do something like that deliberately."

“That was another stunning lap from Tommy (Erdos),” smiled a hugely satisfied Phil Barker, Team Manager at RML. “Once again, he’s done a really great job. We felt sure we had a good, well-balanced car, and it was just a case of getting out there and making the most of the lack of traffic.”

Tommy Erdos was “delighted for the team. We didn’t sit back, and ever since the start of this year we’ve been reacting to the increased pace of the competition. We’ve maintained an excellent relationship with Lola and AER, and in partnership with our own development programme, all the hard graft is now paying off. To achieve pole at Spa, against such very tough opposition, is very satisfying.”

Behind these two were four cars in the 2:08s, headed by Warren Hughes in the Embassy Radical. His time was virtually the same as Darren Manning’s this morning. “Eights won’t be far from our race pace,” said Hughes. “We’ve made a bit of a step forward with the package since the Nurburgring. I’m excited about tomorrow.” Suddenly, the black and white Radical is right in the thick of the action.

The ASM, Binnie and Bruichladdich entries were also in the 2:08s, with Eric van de Poele setting a good 2:09 in the Horag Lola. Following on were the Saulnier and Kruse cars, with the Pilbeam in the 2;13s, the Lucchini still off the pace in 2:18.

In GT1 once again we saw the pattern emerge with the Corvettes and Saleens going out early, and the leading Astons following suit later in the session.

Marco Cioci and Jerome Policand were the first pace setters, the Racing Box Saleen man almost immediately into the 2:15s, with Policand just a tenth back and Vincent Vosse grabbing third spot early on in the #51 Larbre Aston.

Stephane Ortelli then made his predictably rapid progress up the order, his second flying lap was into the 2:14s and he marginally improved next time around to grab class pole in 2:14.715, a highly impressive time – although not quite a match for Hezemans’ pole at the Spa 24 Hours. But it’s worth pointing out that crossing of white lines is expressly forbidden here – and there’s the Astroturf at the exit of the Bus Stop.

There was still a threat looming though, in the form of a trio of quick Aston Martins.

Fabrizio Gollin took the wheel of the #50 Larbre car this time out and he was first of the three quicker Aston Martins to show, but a 2:16.113 was ‘only’ fourth quickest at that point. Antonio Garcia then beat that mark by just one thousandth of a second – indeed at that moment the #59, #50 and #51 Astons were separated by just seven thousandths!

Karl Wendlinger was also now getting up to speed in the Jetalliance DBR9 and the final minutes of the session would see the #50, #59 and #65 cars battling for dominance. Garcia eventually prevailed but he would stay fourth behind the Saleens (a first 1-2 qualifying of the season for the Oreca run cars) and Policand’s Luc Alphand Corvette.

Stephane Ortelli was very pleased indeed with the pole: “Spa is a dream place and I had the dream car to drive today. For the first time in qualifying I was able to go flat through Eau Rouge.”

The Larbre Astons were an unrepresentative sixth and eighth, with Gollin hampered by traffic in #50. The team is confident that its race form will be better.

GT2 would, eventually, be a two car affair, but in the early minutes Danny Watts grabbed some bragging rights for the #81 Team LNT Panoz before the Porsche / Ferrari battle got fully alight.

Richard Lietz and Denny Zardo were the first grand marque protagonists to trouble the timing screens, Zardo’s Villorba Corse Ferrari into the low 2:24s, but Lietz’s IMSA Performance 997 stormed into the low 2:23s.

The Ferrari challenge was blunted still more as Dirk Werner’s Farnbacher Porsche grabbed second slot with a 2:23.7, before Marc Lieb popped up to spoil everyone else’s day with a magnificent 2:21.973 in the #77 Felbermayr-Proton car. Ferrari looked to be well beaten!

Not so fast though. Allan Simonsen was on track by now in the Virgo Ferrari and the Aussie brogued Dane plucked a time out of the bag that was around a tenth shy of Lieb’s mark. Virgo planned to go for just a pair of quick laps, so the next one around would be critical. The task though would get a whole lot harder as Lieb too was also still circulating and his next effort was even faster. 2:21.525! Rob Bell, watching from the press room, thought that he had spotted Simonsen being slightly held up and it seems he may have been right: the #96 car was unable to beat its first time, let alone Lieb’s mighty effort. Porsche prevailed with Virgo next up upholding the honour for the prancing horse.

Simonsen later confirmed that his progress had been blunted: “I thought I’d got enough room behind one of the GPC cars but I was wrong. I actually had to pass him on my second lap but either way it really doesn’t matter. The car is in really good shape for tomorrow.”

Lietz’s earlier mark was good enough to hold third spot, whilst Joel Camathias wasn’t to be pipped for fourth by a late Fabrizio de Simone effort in the #97 GPC Ferrari. Paul Daniels was well pleased with the JWA effort – although Camathias might have gone for an improvement, but for having to switch to the reserve on that lap. “Fourth is fantastic,” said the car owner.

Beyond the quickest of the Porsches and Ferraris there was good news for the Spyker boys, both cars well up the order and closely matched in the 2:24.5s, Peter Kox ahead of Jonny Kane. Two cars in the 21s/22s, four in the 23s and six in the 24s is going to make for another great GT2 race.

Marc Lieb was quick to praise the Felbermayr Proton team and his Pirelli tyres: “The Pirellis were great. We had a chance to test them quite a bit three weeks ago (when the same tyres won the Spa 24 Hours, mounted on the BMS Scuderia Italia 997 with Lieb on the driving strength). It will be a tough race though against the Ferraris and the other Porsches, but we’ll be fighting hard to get back the points we lost at Monza.”