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LMS/ILMC,
Silverstone – Qualifying Report GT1 & GT2 It was a quiet start to the first of the two early-afternoon qualifying sessions, with the vast majority of the 15 car field waiting patiently on their jacks in the pitlane. Only the #76 IMSA Porsche and the #99 Gulf Team First Lamborghini taking advantage of an early track as the pitlane opened. These two were joined by the entire GT1 field – Patrice Goueslard taking pole in that class with a 2:02.640.
Patrick Pilet kicked things off in GT2 with a 2:04.890, while Fabien Giroix’s opener in the new LP560 was a 2:08.916. Given that Pilet’s time was more than a second slower than the fastest class time in the morning practice session, it was clear that the French Porsche factory driver would have to dig a lot deeper. His next lap however saw an improvement of less than two tenths. Toni Vilander, Jaime Melo, Richard Westbrook and Martin Ragginger joined in the fun after six minutes had elapsed and three laps later the Brazilian driver headed the times with a 2:03.728 in the #96 AF Corse Ferrari. Westbrook went briefly second before Ragginger took that spot with a 2:03.862. The drip-feed of cars continued at the half-way point as the Spyker, Aston and the third AF Corse Ferrari took to the track; at which point Vilander went top with a 2:03.499. Allan Simonsen set a 2:03.840 (and then promptly pitted), while Westbrook went just nine thousandths slower in the #75 ProSpeed Porsche. The appearance of the two CRS Ferraris meant that only the BMW remained in the pits – Marc Lieb having also joined in and already having set a second-fastest 2:03.643 in the #77 Porsche – and the #78 Munich machine finally started to roll with eight minutes on the clock. But before we could worry about what Dirk Werner could come up with for Team Schnitzer, attention was drawn to the fact that Rob Bell had equalled both of Vilander’s first two sector times and was looking good. The fantastic Dunlop-liveried yellow machine roared into view out of Woodcote and stopped the clock at 2:03.340 to instantly push the rest of the class down a place.
Peter Dumbreck crossed the line soon afterwards in the Spyker, on 2:03.877, but although only half a second from pole, that translated to only eighth fastest in class; that’s how close it was. But any expectations of a grandstand finish were disappointingly soon displayed. As more and more cars ended their session in the pits, it was left to Andrew Kirkaldy and Dirk Werner to provide the fireworks. But clearly there was moisture in the powder of both cars as neither looked like being fast enough to challenge the leaders. Werner ended only tenth and Kirkaldy two places behind that – most unexpected. It later transpired that CRS’s problems stemmed from a faulty tyre-warmer thermostat, which meant that they tyres had reached 120 degrees before being mounted and were essentially melting. This affected both cars and explains their poor performance. As time ran out and no further significant improvements were noted, it was time for JMW to celebrate its first pole position with the Aston Martin; and, indeed, the Vantage’s first pole position anywhere as a fully homologated GT2. This also meant that Aston Martins have taken pole position in every class that they have contested. "We’ve had great success over the years at Silverstone which doesn’t give you the right to more, but it’s nice," said Bell. "Since Hungary we have had to iron out one or two gremlins on the car and have done a lot of work with Dunlop so we came here with more confidence than we could have imagined. "Due to that hard work we are on pole. The car felt great out of the box this weekend and we didn’t have to push too hard [in qualifying] so could save the tyres for the race. As far as the Aston Martin GT2 car is concerned, the basic package is there and it just needs tweaking here or there. We expected the Ferraris to have pole quite easily so we’ll see what happens in the race. "We were running less rear wing for qualifying which was a bit scary in places; we’d had a slight imbalance with under steer all week. Every session has been wet and dry and we haven’t done a full run. History would suggest we’re strong over the race and our quickest laps come towards the end of the race." “It is at least something to be ahead of the GT2s – We are aiming to finish the race ahead of them too,” said Patrice Goueslard. With the #95 failing to claim pole, the #77 Felbermayr Porsche needs to finish no lower than ninth to take the title. LMP1, LMP2 & FLM After the customary ten-minute break, it was time for the prototypes to take their turn against the clock, and both Audis decided to strike early. Allan McNish led the way, but found his first flying lap compromised by a dawdling Pegasus Courage and he stopped the clock at 1:44.329 (as it turned out, good enough for third on its own); closely followed by a 1:44.691 from Timo Bernhard. Frank Mailleux was also on track in the #008 Signature Plus Lola Aston Martin and his account was opened with a 1:47.085. P2 saw a brief Lola history lesson, as Rob Garofall first went fastest in the RLR MG Lola EX265 (1:55.469), followed soon after by Jonathan Kennard in the KSM B08/47 (1:54.851) and then Tommy Erdos in the RML HPD Coupe (1:52.668). Unfortunately, Danny Watts then spoiled the scene somewhat by crossing the line an almost unbelievable six seconds quicker than the #25 in the #42 Strakka HPD ARX - 01c. Olivier Pla split the first two in P2 soon afterwards with a 1:49.69 in the Quifel Ginetta-Zytek, while further ahead Bernhard had just taken provisional pole in the #8 with 1:44.012. Two fastest sectors from McNish, however, suggested strongly that he wasn’t happy with this state of affairs, and a few seconds later pole was once more in his custody with 1:43.475.
In Formula Le Mans, Dominik Kraihamer had set a 1:58.135 to take the early category lead in the #45 Boutsen car, but Charlie Hollings used his local knowledge to good effect by lapping at 1:57.048 in the #48 Hope Polevision car. With ten minutes gone, Jonny Cocker leapt to third overall in the Drayson Racing Lola – 1:46.259 – but we still hadn’t seen anything from the Pugs or the AMR cars. Greg Mansell took the Beechdean-Mansell Ginetta-Zytek into sixth (fifth in P1) as the session entered its second half, while Johnny Mowlem took the Team LNT version up to sixth in P1; and it was at this point that the remaining cars decided that the time was right to join in. But it wasn’t an auspicious start for the French cars, as both the factory and Oreca cars failed to set the track alight in their first few miles. Indeed, Nick Minassian managed to spin his car on the new part of the track and seemed to struggle to rejoin.
Neel Jani wasn’t worried by the Pugs’ lack of progress and claimed fourth with a 1:46.451 in the #12 Rebellion Lola. Nicolas Lapierre’s task wasn’t helped by the sudden appearance of the #27 Race Performance Radical’s rear-bodywork – in several pieces – on the Hangar Straight, and with five minutes to go the Oreca 908 was only 11th overall on 1:50.785. Minassian improved his time to 1:44.489 – third fastest – a minute later, while Stefan Mucke was also speeding up in the #009 Lola Aston Martin; an eighth-fastest 1:46.524 improving to a sixth-fastest 1:45.911 by the end. The fastest non-diesel, however, was the #13 Rebellion Lola; Andrea Belicchi posting a fifth-fastest 1:45.731 near the end. Lapierre had by this point improved to fourth with a 1:44.510, but time and tyres had run out and Audi enjoyed their first ever pole position with the R15 and their first pole since Mosport 2008. For McNish, this was his first pole since Road America 2007; and, remarkably, his first pole position at Silverstone since his F3000 days in 1990. “We’ve always been in the fight with Peugeot in the race but it’s nice to be in the thick of it in qualifying as well,” said McNish. “Really though, with the changeable conditions in all the practice sessions we went in not knowing what we could do and having no idea at all where Peugeot were. We knew we were closer to Peugeot but I wasn’t convinced that we could get to pole. “We’re here to win though and there have been changes to the car, particularly in aero but also subsequently in set-up too. That has made the car easier to drive and more consistent, a big improvement. I think the windy conditions helped us there too.” Things went badly for the #007 AMR Lola, as Adrian Fernandez found the entire steering column coming away in his hand. He had had a minor knock in the earlier session that required some work, and the Mexican believes that something hadn’t been fastened properly. It turns out that something similar had happened in his IndyCar days. Peugeot Sport report that Nic Minassian’s tyres were not badly affected in his half spin – he’ll be fine for the race tomorrow. Danny Watts didn’t need to do more than four laps to secure pole in P2 and he was delighted to have done so at the team’s home track.
“It’s a big weekend for us with lots of our people, sponsors, family and friends here and lots from Wirth too,” said Watts. “It’s nice to get the qualifying box ticked. “The car is really confidence-inspiring, it has no nasty surprises and that’s down to a lot of hard work by everyone, not just at the track and in the workshop but also in the simulator at Wirth.” Olivier Pla secured second for Quifel, while an excellent effort from Thor-Christian Ebbesvik gave Team Bruichladdich third, ahead of RML. The Formula Le Mans fight for pole continued to the end, with Charlie Hollings fending off a determined challenge from title-chasing Steve Zacchia to take pole for Hope Polevision.
“The team asked me to do a job today and I’m very happy to have taken pole for them,” said Hollings. “I’ve been racing mainly GTs this year, so it’s great to do so well on my return to prototypes.” So four British drivers took pole for Sunday’s race; what better way to encourage the home crowd to get enthused? MH/GG (with thanks to Fiona Miller) |
