Le Mans Series, Estoril - Friday Free Practice 2 Report

The clouds have gone (other than an enormous cloud of thick black smoke from a burning factory that has been rising for the last hour or so and blowing parallel with the main straight a few kilometres away to the east, apparently closing the motorway to Lisbon), the temperatures have risen and the track is perhaps a little bit oily after a smoky car completed two laps in the preceding CER qualifying session before coming to a halt.

Initial flying laptimes were within two seconds of earlier today though, so the signs were that there would be some improvements and indeed there were.

Tom Kimber-Smith’s second flying lap was within half a second of team-mate Lombard’s this morning, then he was down to just two-tenths off with a 1:33.385 before pitting.  Neel Jani was also showing early intent with a 1:32.707, then a 1:32.551.

All 27 cars took to the track as Gimmi Bruni gave #51 its first taste of Portugal, but it was only a very steady installation lap and back to the garage.

Schell went quickest so far in FLM with a 1:39.249, later improved to a 1:38.8. 

Happier times for Hankook than this morning as they initially headed the GTE Pro times with a 1:41.437 for the first part of the session, four tenths quicker than they had managed in the earlier session.

Kraihamer’s electronic woes seemed to be behind him and he was into the 1:33s, only four thousandths off Kimber-Smith.  That point for qualifying will not be given up easily by Boutsen Energy...  Beche was 0.6 seconds further back for TDS, a big improvement over the time from Free Practice 1. 

Pilet ousted Simonsen with 25 minutes of the session gone, a 1:40.563 the best in GTE Pro so far and hinting at some sorely missed good fortune for the IMSA Matmut Pro team who languish at the bottom of the championship table.  It didn’t last long though as Lietz put in a 1:39.870.  The tight and twisty sequences seem to be suiting the Porsches well. 

Bruni completed a handful of laps in #51 with a best of a rather leisurely 1:42.  The remainder of the class were clustered together, apart from JMB where Ballay was predictably unable to get near the pace of his new team mate Ayari who sat this session out.  Sam Hancock took the Jota Aston Martin to third in class with a 1:40.986 with 20 minutes to go.

A 1:33.028 for Jonathan Hirschi put him quickest in the P2 category so far, the Swiss apparently finding prototypes to his liking and that time would stay the best in class. 

Jani had improved his time to a 1:32.441 but Jousse set almost the identical time to that posted by Collard earlier in the day with a 1:31.9.

Nicolas Marroc popped to the top in FLM with a 1:38.401.

A red flag curtailed proceedings with 18 minutes still to run.  Barry Gates’s spin into the gravel at the VIP curve, beaching the car, was the cause.

In GTE Am AF Corse were faster than IMSA by a tenth, but nearly a second off Armindo’s best in free practice 1.

A green flag was shown with 13 minutes remaining but the times remained rather static, most teams choosing to get their third driver into the car during the red flag period.  Minor improvements for Vilander and Fisichella saw them shuffle slightly further ahead.

J-CB went for it with three minutes to go. He matched Prost’s fastest first sector, then took nearly a second out of Collard’s quickest second sector and despite losing a little time in the final sector a dominant 1:30.935 was the result, a second quicker than anything yet.  His next two laps were only two-tenths off too as he took the chequered flag.  Rebellion’s first warning shot to Pescarolo had been fired. 

The top five in P2 ended up covered by a second: Race Performance from Greaves, Boutsen Energy, Strakka and TDS.

GTE Pro finished with a big lead for #77. A 1:39.8 from a 1:40.5 for IMSA.  Vilander was a few hundredths further back for AF Corse.  Jota were next up with a 1:40.986, Hankook, JMW, AF Corse #51 and Prospeed then covered by just over a second.

An early start tomorrow, free practice 3 is 8:55, but an early finish to as qualifying is done by 13:40.

The grandstands on the main entry/pit-straight will be entirely free to visitors throughout the race weekend, with a centre transfer allowing paddock access at only 15 Euros.  The grandstand over the Parabolica/Orelha section will also be free to access on Sunday.  Whilst it initially seemed odd to restrict spectators in this way, a quick walk around the last part of the lap shows that unlike most circuits it is not possible for spectators to walk around this Autodromo, it is hemmed in to a large extent by woods and private land.  This may prove somewhat frustrating to anyone wanting to watch the entire race, the only advice I can offer is bring a cushion, the grandstand ‘seats’ are slabs of concrete...

PS