Le Mans Test Day – Sunday 3
Absolutely All Square In LMP1D In other news, outside of Le Mans, Lamborghini GT3 driver for the rest of the British GT season, in the Team Modena Gallardo, is Matthew Owen, son of Chamberlain-Synergy’s Peter Owen. Jonathan Cochet has a Grand-Am drive to announce tomorrow. Dario Franchitti is allegedly heading to NASCAR next season… Back to the test day here… Alexander Frei: “Our car (#12 Courage) is nice to drive, with some understeer. The feeling of power is much better with the aero changes, even though we have the old intercoolers. The new ones were on the car that crashed (#13), but we could see the difference between the cars. We hope to cover a lot of laps this afternoon.” Claude Surmont at Courage: “Guillaume (Moreau) has gone to hospital. He lost consciousness in the accident, and so he doesn’t remember anything. Jean-Marc has been very pleased with him at Monza and in testing. We don’t know what caused the accident – until we see some observers’ reports.” There is a suggestion that there might have been contact with / from another car. Andy Wallace: “The revised Tertre Rouge is fantastic – I love it. You can wail through there like crazy. The revised entry to the Porsche Curves is smoother: they’ve got rid of a dip and a big bump, so there’s more wailing going on there. The RML car is fantastic, but the smaller restrictor doesn’t help. You get behind a GT2 car and realise that you’re not catching it very quickly on the straight. “Tertre Rouge is now fourth gear – and by the end of the day, we might not be braking at all there. I like the circuit changes – they all make it better.” At Creation, “the new aero appears to be OK,” according to Ian Bickerton. “We’re just doing set-up work, but we’ve got a good balance.” “The balance is OK,” added JC-W, “it’s a good starting point. We’re going to change a few things in the lunch break. I love being in the last garage. Everything cools down as you come up the pit lane – and when we go out, we’re only on the pit limiter for about a second.” JC-W was equally as pleased as A. Wallace with the track changes, and reckoned it is now “up to 3 to 4 seconds faster than last year.” Could pole be in the 3:24s, perhaps, if certain cars really go for it? Frank Biela was out on a 13 lap run, on one tank of fuel, after the stoppage for the Courage accident, and set a best lap in the 3:30s. That’s quick for mid-morning here – suggesting that the circuit is a lot quicker. We’re as sure as we can be that this R10 did manage 13 laps on a tank (81 litres) of diesel. After that run, we had a second stoppage for the #24 del Bello Courage, we think. Yes, it was: Petrov damaged it front and rear. Stuart Moseley reckoned that Tertre Rouge is “a hell of a lot quicker. I thought initially that the circuit was 1 to 2 seconds quicker, but now I think it is maybe more. If you see Karrim Ojjeh, tell him that bits of his car took out our gurney flap, out of Arnage. I changed my line so it didn’t hit me. I think he’d had contact with another car.” Chris Buncombe in the Binnie Lola Zytek has done his ten laps, and has found his “favourite corner in the whole world. Indianapolis. Monza was easy on the straights, but here there is the camber changes, bumps, the narrowness of the road: it certainly keeps your attention.” Everything is fine at the Lizards. Johannes van Overbeek: “I think it might be about a second or so quicker in a GT2 car this year. We were quickest in class earlier this morning. “You notice the extra weight of the 997 (compared to the 996 here last year), especially coming off the slow corners. The bigger tyres and better aero make it faster in the fast corners, but you also feel the weight under braking. At the moment we’re already quicker on top speed than last year, but maybe that is mainly because Tertre Rouge is faster, so we’re quicker onto the straight.” Seth Neiman: “We’re working away at making a 997 work at Le Mans. Our basic approach proved to be not wrong, we’re happy.” There’s a problem with the Arena Zytek – “Stefan did 14 to 15 laps,” said Hayanari Shimoda, “and then the throttle cable broke. I will go out this afternoon.” Mike Earle: “We just connected the spare on the car. The cable never seems to fail on the P2 car. Yes, we thought we’d solved that.” Approaching 13.00 and the lunch break, and Michael Vergers proves that much of the above (the faster circuit) is correct with a stunning 3:39 in the Barazi-Epsilon Zytek, first P2 time under 3:40, while Olivier Beretta is fastest in GT1 with a 3:52, and the IMSA Porsche quickest in GT2 with a 4:06. Biela’s 3:30.899 was bettered by Pirro in the same R10 with a 3:30.6. Just before 13.00, Kirkaldy goes fastest in GT2 with a 4:04.635. All the times as soon as we can post them. Ah – Minassian… he sets a 3:31, then matches the Pirro time to the thousandth of a second, how about that?
MC | 
