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Le Mans Series –
Silverstone – Hour 1 There is a reasonable crowd here, in the stands opposite the pits: not a huge crowd, but there are people here, and one stand looks to be nicely half full, with a good spread of people down towards Copse. More round the back of the circuit, we assume. There’s more, high cloud around than during the previous two days, but it’s still bright. Tom Chilton reckons that the P1 Zytek might be a better proposition than the P2 car in the race: we’ll see…. Brother Max is expected to drive for the first time in the third hour (third stint). Are we going to be able to announce any Le Mans Series champions at the end of the afternoon? The Lucchini won’t be one of them, and won’t be running today: chassis damage, says Sam Collins of Racecar Engineering. So no drive for poor old Giovanni Lavaggi. That leaves 45 starters – and Christophe Bouchut has a nice gap ahead of him on the grid, to have a run at Garcia’s Modena Aston Martin? The ASM Lola has had a bit of a panic on the grid, but all seems well. The Charouz Lola is starting on the tyres that Mucke rotated on in qualifying…. so he might struggle through the first stint. It’s a clean start – apart from the Mosley Radical being punted off, and Stuart Hall tapped wide at Copse. Odd: Marc Gene pulls away from the Sarrazin Peugeot, these two only easing away from Mucke, who has Danny Watts all over him in the P2 leader. The next group comprises Cochet, Collard, JC-W and Chilton, then Primat and second in P2, the Erdos RML entry. Collard passes Cochet at the start of lap six. GT1 is Garcia by a second from Ortelli, Bouchut and Gavin, the latter pair having a great old dice. Robb Bell leads GT2 by six seconds by lap five, from Lietz and Lieb. Mowlem is up to fourth in the older GPC 430. Moseley’s recovery brings him up to the tail of the GT1s. Gavin races side by side with Bouchut all the way past the pits, and takes third in GT1 at Copse. The C6.R pulls out a second on the next lap. Gavin is within 4 seconds of Garcia, the GT1 leader. At the front, it’s still #7 from #8, these two 11 seconds apart by lap 7 ! Mucke is within two seconds of Sarrazin, with Watts two more back from the Lola. Mucke pits at the end of lap 8. Tyres? Watts in the LNT Zytek goes third overall. Erdos is ninth, one place ahead of de Castro in #40 ASM Lola. Tom Chilton was partly right: apart from Watts in #46, the P1s are filling out almost all the top eight places. Mucke’s stop is a planned one: the team had anticipated the stop, thanks to the flat spots yesterday. He drops to 19th, ahead of the GT1 cars. Moseley has caught the GT1 leaders. De Castro takes second in P2 from Erdos on lap 10: this is the P2 title battle. The P2 Lola is threatening Chilton Snr. in #10 Zytek, for seventh. Bell leads GT2 by a whopping 11 seconds. Lietz, Lieb and Mowlem are 10, 16 and 28 seconds behind the Virgo car. Lap 12 – Safety Car board is out, so the gaps will close up. The signs on the gantry at Maggotts have come loose! This might be a long delay? How does anyone get to that problem? The SC has picked up the fourth placed GT2 car, Mowlem in #83 – so the 96, 76 and 77 cars will gain a lap….. The #61 Saleen pits, and is pushed into its garage (alternator?). The Binnie Lola Zytek pits for fuel and tyres. Order overall: 7, 8, 46 (P2), 16, 9, 12, 10, 40, 25 (both P2), 17, 18, 10, 45, 35, 32, 31 (last four all P2). The Modena DBR9 pits, so Ortelli leads GT1 in the only healthy Saleen. Bouchut also pits. There’s a man on the gantry, removing something, with 30 minutes elapsed. Lap 16, still under the SC, and Watts pits from third – and drives straight into the garage. Alternator and battery change needed. Not what the race needed. Rob Bell has pitted in the GT2 leader, dropping to the tail of the queue – but with a full tank on board. He’s about eight cars behind the class leaders (76 and 77). A wave by starts, so the GT2 muddle will be sorted out, Mowlem and everyone else towards the front of the class getting that lap back (sort of). End of lap 18 and we’re racing again – before the waved by cars have caught the tail of the queue…. So Mowlem goes from two mins. behind to one minute behind the front three. That’s daft. Gene has a clear track, Sarrazin doesn’t – and Gavin gets by Ortelli to lead GT1. Lap 19 Gavin leads Bouchut by 1.6s, and seems able to lap q uicker. Bell is right on the tail of Lieb, for the GT2 lead. Lietz is third. Bell passes Lieb at Stowe, and leads again, with a stop carried out. The Binnie Lola is in electrical trouble. Mucke is the man on the move, up from tenth to fifth in less than three laps. Next target is Cochet, eight secs. ahead. 45 minutes and the LNT Zytek is 44th, one from the tail, six laps lost with the alternator change. JC-W (having made a stop) is making progress, picking off Hughes and Primat, with Chilton next man ahead of him. Mucke hauls in Cochet, the gap shrinking from 8 secs to 2 very quickly. Gavin is pulling away from Ortelli (3 secs.) in GT1, with Garcia gobbling up the middle of the class, four seconds behind Bouchut, who is third. Rob Bell pulls about 5 secs on Lieb, second in GT2. Virgo is looking thoroughly dominant today. Lietz in #76 is right on Lieb’s tail. Approaching 55 mins and Gene leads Sarrazin by 21 secs., Collard is 3 secs behind #8, then it’s Mucke (up to fourth), about 14 seconds behind Collard. Then it’s Cochet, de Castro, JC-W and Erdos. Primat, Chilton, Hughes, Hall, Barazi, Berridge and van de Poele complete the next group. Lap 30, 58 mins gone and Gene leads Sarrazin by a whopping 33 seconds. After 1 Hour |