Le Mans 24 Hours Test Day - Wrapping That One Up

The 2012 Le Mans Test Day ended with Audi to the fore but Toyota were far, far closer than many gave them credit for before the (surprisingly blue) cars hit the track.

The morning session saw all six factory cars separated by just 1.033 seconds and whilst the second session saw that gap stretch to 4 seconds, the faster of the TS030s was less than 1.3 seconds off the lead Audi (which crashed) and seemed to have something in hand.

There were problems for both e-tron quattro R18s in the afternoon session even before Allan McNish took a tumble at Tetre Rouge – Reliability in a fortnight’s time is not yet a given!

Fastest trap speeds were very firmly Toyota territory, both TS030s north of 330km/h whilst the fastest Audi was McNish's #2 e-tron quattro at 327.1 (the slowest Treluyer's 322.3, exactly the same speed as the Dome Judd - the DeltaWing meanwhile was timed at 306.9 - as fast as the Nissan engined Morgan but a tad slower than the Judd engined version)

In the privateer ranks in LMP1 there’s a substantial gap to the works cars but potentially a great scrap between the Rebellion Lola Toyotas, the HPDs and, if Henri can get the bugs filtered out, the Pescarolo pair of oddball entries.

The Oak Pesca-Judd had ground to make up after Guillaume Moreau’s big shunt in the morning. The team worked wonders to get the car back on track later but we must wait to see if the same can be said about Moreau – here’s hoping he does. A press release from Oak at the end of the day stated: "Guillaume Moreau has suffered a serious but partial injury to his spinal cord’s twelfth vertebra. He has since undergone an emergency operation performed by Professor Olivier Lucas at the University Hospital of Angers’ Neurosurgery Department. It was crucial to quickly reduce pressure around the spinal cord following the fracture. Although the operation went well, it will be several months before his level of recovery can be fully assessed." Everyone at DSC wishes Guillaume a speedy and full recovery.

LMP2 was the usual bunfight with Olivier Pla making the difference in the #35 car that he won’t be driving at in a fortnight’s time – he topped both sessions, less than a tenth of a second’s difference between the two, and around half a second to the good from the nearest competition.

Christophe Bouchut ended the day as fastest HPD LMP2 runner (and fastest man not called Olivier Pla too!).

It was another very encouraging day for Jota, second fastest in the morning, third in the afternoon with a pair of laps from Sam Hancock (below ) that were identical (to the thousandth!)

Pla’s Le Mans race car, the #24 Judd engined car, was next up but then things got very close knit indeed after that in the order – There are some fast men, some fast cars, but the key is going to be where are the fast crews, both driver crews and pit crews, the majority of the field might find themselves somewhere either in, or close to, the mix as this one winds out!

GTE Pro saw Aston Martin, Ferrari (briefly Porsche) and Corvette lead sessions at one point or another. The best time of the day went to the #74 Vette with Oliver Gavin at the wheel but the Luxury Ferrari, #51 AF Corse 458, #73 Vette and Aston were close at times (though two of the above ended the day on the back of flatbeds after pushing perhaps a tad too hard).

GTE Am was headed in both sessions by the Aston Martin; Simonsen weaving his usual brand of magic.

The #50 Larbre Vette (Lamy), #67 IMSA Porsche (Armindo) and #79 Lizards Porsche (Holzer) all looking the part too – as for race prospects, the closing comments above on LMP2 apply equally here.

Finally the Nissan DeltaWing – It wasn’t setting stunning times, it spent a bit too long in the pitlane, but aside from a single lap on wets it did the whole day (around 50 laps) on a single set of Michelin slicks and “they looked brand new when we took them off!”  Interesting stuff!

We’ll be back again in a week’s time for scrutineering.

GG