ILMC, Zhuhai - Friday Free Practice One

Good morning from a rather steamy Zhuhai International Circuit – We’ve got a pair of free practice sessions to look forward to with 90 minutes of track action at 10:30 local time – We’ll be posting with UK times on the site throughout to prevent confusion and, of course , with free to view coverage thanks to the continued support for our long-haul late season efforts from Cambridge Business Travel.

28 of the 29 cars are out and running this morning (no sign yet of the FLM Oreca) and on the entry front the only change to mention is that Hong Kong based Philip Ma joins Marco Cioci in the #61 AF Corse Ferrari 430.

It’s fully dry out on track after a very mixed week in weather terms – and the charmingly dated media centre’s single glazing  offers us the opportunity to see a.  just how noisy modern sportscars still are and b. just how quiet an Audi R18 really is!

There are plenty of firsts and lasts to report of course too – This is, of course the last ever ILMC race before the FIA World Endurance Championship takes centre stage in 2012.

It’s the first (and last!) sportscar outing for Mika Hakkinen and the last international race for the factory run Lola Aston Martin,and last AMR race too for Team Principal George Howard Chappell.

And it’s the last race for CRS Racing – More of that we’re sure throughout the weekend.

In pitlane we’ve noticed Marcus Haselgrove, ex Champion Racing Audi and Mazda LMP2 Race Engineer ‘on the wall’ for Luxury Racing, a team that shows continuing intent to be a major force in GTE.

Out on track the diesels are into the 1:23s, Sebastien Bordais in the #7 Peugeot fastest early on with a 1:23.002 ahead of Tom Kristensen in the #2 Audi.

Fastest Petrol man after 15 minutes was Guillaume Moreau in the #15 Oak Pescarolo – 1:26.411 wit Lucas Ordonez posting the fastest P2 time early on – 1:30.309

In GTE pro it was a BMW 1-2 early on Farfus in #55 in a 1:35.339 a tenth clear of Alzen in #56 with a trio of Am cars next up – Nic Jonsson’s 1:35.736 putting the Krohn 430 ahead of Tim Mullen in the CRS Ferrari and Fabien Giroix in the #60 Gulf AMR Middle East Aston.

Carlo van Dam led the GTC order in the early laps of the day in the Hitotsuyama Audi R8 LMS, a 1:37.466  bettering the early efforts of Darryl O’ Young and yes, Mika Hakkinen with Florian Gruber trailing that trio.

Stephane Sarrazin put his stamp on proceedings after 20 minutes, lowering the bar to a sub 1:22 time, albeit by just a thousandth of a second – 1:21.999 for the #8 Peugeot.

The now all over white #23 Tokai University Oreca Courage meanwhile was lapping slowly and sporadically – almost propping up the order after 20 minutes. 

The newly (and very smartly Prospeed-esque) reliveried #63 Porsche of Proton Competition got in amongst the GTE lead group within the first half hour, Richard Lietz at the wheel just as Stephane Ortelli started to impose some GTE Pro pressure on the leading Am times.

27 minutes gone and Hakkinen popped up at the top of GTC – 1:37.163 for the #96 AMG Mercedes.  Tellingly perhaps all four GTC cars were ahead of the two Lotus Evoras at the half hour point.

Sebastien Bourdais put the #7 Peugeot into the 1:22s after 30 minutes.

James Rossiter gets in amongst the GTCs in a Lotus at last (until Florian Gruber posts a further improvement) as we approach a unique point in world time.

As we sit and watch the on track action the clock ticks over to 11:11 and 11 seconds on the 11 November 2011 - 11:11.11 - 11/11/11  - A uniquely singular moment!!! The #59 Luxury 458 celebrates by spinning into the gravel at Turn 1!

Fisichella improves soon afterwards in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari but its still a pair of 'Am' 430s ahead of a pair of 'Pro 458s as we reach the halfway point in the session.  Not for long though, Fisichella continues to improve and overhauls Tim Mullen's earlier effort in the CRS 430 (Roger Wills now at the wheeel of #62)

Hakkinen meanwhile has handed over the Merc to Cog Fu (Franky) Cheng, and it's the Chinese driver that posts the first sub 1:37 GTC time - 1:36.994

The Tokai University car has now done no fewer than 6 out laps without posting a meaningful time!  As I type those words Shogu finally completes a flying lap - 1:34.042 and immediately a red flag comes out with 36 minutes remaining.

It's Rasmussen in the #64 Lotus, a spin and stall in T1 - no damage it seems - That's more than can be said for the sister #65 car - it pits, smoking from the rear - fire extinguishers required too!

Sarrazin was off and in the gravel too at the same moment - in the gravel at T11 - #8 and #64 arrive back at the pits unnder their own steam and with no damage apparent - Did #65 drop fluid?  If it did there's no evidence of it on the pit apron - We're back under green with 30 minutes remaining.

Marco Cioci and Olivier Beretta are both improving in GTE-Am, Beretta climbing up the order, Cioci off the bottom of the timing chart and faster than both Evoras, and continuing to improve as Franky Cheng again lowers the GTC bar (1:36.930)

15 minutes to go and we finally get a chance to see the #90 PTRS Oreca  Wei Liang Chen moving up the order.

Andy Priaulx goes top in GTE Pro with 8 minutes remaining - 1:35.108 for the #56 BMW man, this just after Neel Jani grabbed petrol P1 bragging rights with a 1:25.533 in the #12 Rebellion Lola Toyota.

6 minutes remaining and both Luxury 458s posted improved tiomes but with no significant move up the order.  Makowiecki though improved again and finally put a 458 ahead of Nic Jonsson's early session time.

Jorg Muller goes to the top in GTE Pro in a 1:34.680 just as the second red flag comes out with 3 minutes remaining - an incident involving the #97 Audi of Hong Kong man Hing Tak Mak - It arrives back in pitlane evidently unscathed. 

That's the end of the session.