Petit Le Mans – Qualifying Report
Worthy Of The Occasion

Earlier in the day Tim Mayer announced that, because qualifying has been so spectacular this season, in 2009 the pole winner of each class will receive two points and the runner up, one. At the end of qualifying for the PLM, nobody would have denied that that was entirely the right decision.

First, an apology is due to Andretti Green Racing for underestimating their ability to put back together a very damaged car quickly; and the #26 duly appeared on track for the LMP session, with Franck Montagny at the wheel. Also back was the #9 Highcroft Racing Acura and David Brabham would be handling pole-seeking duties. 

Less fortunate was the #46 Flying Lizard Porsche. Johannes van Overbeek had been the victim of a sticking throttle after just a lap in the car and that was the cause of his morning crash. The car was at the bodyshop and would miss qualifying, although it was expected back Friday night.

The GTs were out first and found the circuit to be more slippery than the morning session had been; something Johnny O’Connell attributed to the supporting race activity between the sessions.

O’Connell was involved in a personal duel with Olivier Beretta that saw the provisional GT1 pole change hands several times between the two Corvettes, before the sight of the two C6.Rs parked up in the pitlane indicated that the battle had been resolved in favour of the #3 by five hundredths of a second.

"It doesn't get any closer than that," said O'Connell. "That just shows how equal these Corvettes are. I've never been one to get a lot of poles, so I have to thank the crew and my engineer, Ken Flory, because I've won more poles this year than I did previously in my entire career.

"Olivier has more poles than anybody in the series, so whenever you qualify ahead of him, you've had a good day. Qualifying was something that I wanted to improve in my game this year, and I think I have."

In GT2, Joerg Bergmeister was the first to set a fast lap, kicking things off with a 1:20.268 and improving to 1:19.885 soon after in the #45 Flying Lizard Porsche. Pierre Kaffer looked to be his nearest immediate rival in the #99 JMB Ferrari, but he was the best part of a second adrift at this point.

Others were soon to join in the fun, in particular Dirk Werner in the #87 Farnbacher Loles Porsche and Jaime Melo in the #62 Risi Ferrari, and the three cars were separated by just a few hundredths after ten minutes; but Werner then dropped in a 1:19.487 to move clear.

Further back, several cars were putting in encouraging sessions. Darren Turner was wringing real pace out of the #007 Vantage, finishing eighth in class on 1:20.940. This capped a good day for Paul Drayson, as news of his recall to the British Government had just been announced – step forward Lord Drayson, Minister of State, Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills. 

The Panoz was also going well, but qualified behind the Vantage for the first time this season.

As the session entered its final ten, Melo decided that enough was enough and banged in a 1:19.399. Bergmeister looked ready to respond, but overcooked things across the kerbs and had to back off; the championship leading Porsche ending the session in fourth.

“I am really happy with pole position because Petit Le Mans is very important for us, especially after the season we’ve had," said Melo. "We missed out on a good result last year so we’re working really hard to be on the top of the podium this time.  

“In the qualifying I got traffic on the first three laps so I eased up and waited to get a clear space to do a quick lap.  To be honest, I expected the gap between us and the Porsche to be a little bit more as yesterday we were ahead of everyone by a reasonably big margin on old tires.  But, when I came into the pits, I thought it would be enough to be on pole.  The track was more slippery compared with yesterday and this morning but the balance was the same.  

“We worked hard to get the same balance and grip that we found in the test a few weeks ago and, as I’ve said before, we have a great team at Risi Competizione.  Everyone has been really positive which is important and I want to say thank you very much to my race engineer, Rick, [Mayer].  I like him so much, and he works really well with me.”   

The GT qualifying was the perfect warm-up to the main act; and the big boys didn’t disappoint.

The early moments saw Romain Dumas setting the P2 pace at 1:07.833 in the #7 Penske Porsche and Allan McNish lowering the P1 times to 1:06.976. Olivier Pla embarked on a strong run in the #50 LNT Ginetta-Zytek with 1:08.613 – sixth fastest overall – and Marco Werner went to second with 1:07.470.

But the fun started when Stephane Sarrazin took things down to a 1:06.600.

If anyone had any doubt that the Audis would be unable to respond, who else but McNish instantly dispelled them by going faster – 1:06.327.

The Frenchman in the French car was clearly on a fast lap as McNish took the lead, but was baulked by two slower prototypes in Turn 10. His lap time was still 1:06.576 – had a 1:05 just gone by?

Regaining his composure, Sarrazin gave himself space and wound the wick up once more. His next three laps were improvements on his previous, but McNish’s time remained tantalisingly out of reach – by just 0.032s.

Sarrazin pitted, to join McNish who had been waiting patiently in his car for some minutes.

Provisional pole in P2 was strictly a Porsche affair, and, more accurately, a Penske Porsche affair. Dumas and Ryan Briscoe passed the pole between each other, before the Australian pitted for a splash of fuel while a tenth off Dumas’ pace. On his return to the track, he found the necessary space to put in a flier and clinched the glory by a tenth in the #5. Sascha Maassen wrapped things up nicely for the team just before the close by taking third.

“We had to stop for fuel part-way through the qualifying session, but the car was great and it seemed to feel even more energetic after the stop,” said Briscoe. “It was a good team effort to prepare three cars, and the hard work for the long race tomorrow is still ahead of us, but the Penske Porsches are still off to a good start.”

Franck Montagny did his best to break up the party, but had to settle for fourth, just ahead of Simon Pagenaud in the #66 de Ferran Acura. David Brabham finished 12th overall – seventh in class – but after the dramas of the previous day, nobody was expecting more.

McNish and Sarrazin ventured out again with about eight minutes remaining and were both within a couple of tenths of the pole time on their first fliers – the Audi on 1:06.551 and the Peugeot on 1:06.444.

The call went out to the Scot that the Peugeot was spent and that he could pit, but in truth, there was nothing more to be found in the Audi at that stage. Sarrazin, however, pushed on and crossed the line to stop the clock at 1:06.242 and take pole.

"I was surprised by how little grip there was during the early part of the session and I went into some memorable slides," said Sarrazin. "The grip improved for the second half of the session, though, and I decided to give it everything I had. I couldn't see myself returning to the Peugeot pits with only the second best time to show for everybody's efforts! Indeed, everyone at Peugeot Sport has done a remarkable job and the car has improved each time out round this particularly exacting track."

Stuart Hall was undoubtedly disappointed to finish in 19th place – the last of the prototypes taking part – but he can take heart from the knowledge that the #888 Creation’s 1:09.944 represents a two-second year on year improvement and would have left him fifth on the grid in 2007. That’s how much things have moved on. 

As a curtain raiser to the big race, this couldn’t have been better scripted and there is a very real possibility that this years PLM will be one to remember.

MH