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LMS, Nürburgring - Friday Free
Practice 1 After a frankly disgustingly wet morning in the Eifel mountains, the rain fizzled out 20 minutes or so before the first practice session began. Lightning storms severe enough to make the German news headlines on Thursday had certainly cast a bad omen but the forecast for race weekend remained positive – warm, sunny and dry. In the circumstances then, this session seemed to offer the competitors little else than an opportunity to blow out some Portuguese spiders and their associated cobwebs, prior to dry running beginning this evening (fingers crossed) or tomorrow. In fact the skies lightened considerably and the track was soon displaying sizeable swathes of dry tarmac. Times were understandably cautious at first; the #88 Porsche bedded firmly into the gravel eight minutes into the session proof enough that a steady start was the only way. Felbermayr Junior apparently at the wheel. Only J-CB and Danny Watts threatened to break the 2:00 barrier in the first quarter of the session, Watts with the first meaningful strike of 1:57.2. Pla made the early running in P2, while GT2 was Janis from Lieb and Bell. In GT1 the Corvette was comfortably ahead of the Saleen throughout the damp part, though this was then reversed as the track dried. Collard, Bakkerud and Meyrick all dipped below 2:00 in the second quarter with the Lola Aston Martins still conspicuous by their absence from the top of the stack.
Watts pitted, then set out for a second stint. He improved the lead time to a 1:56.884 and then next time round a 1:52.796; then a 1:51.606 coming up to the half way point. It seemed slicks were now the order of the day, given the tumbling of the times. There was something for the teams to learn after all. Pompidou took the lead briefly in P2 before a first flier on slicks from Erdos rendered the earlier times meaningless. Pla and Pompidou then duked it out to second and fourth overall. The P2s were taking over in the drying conditions, with Erdos notching up the fastest first and third sectors overall. Next time round he did head the timesheets, as the first man (just) under 1:50. GT2 was #76, #85, #77, six tenths covering this trio before Lieb took #77 half a second clear.
With 25 minutes to go the Lola Aston Martins were gathering momentum, first and second in P1 (still behind Erdos) before Primat notched up the quickest sectors in 009 and went quickest overall with a 1:48.276. Hall was building more steadily in #008, down in 11th overall. Meyrick led the Kolles Audi charge, third in P1 a good showing even in the rather sad absence of the works Audi team, Peugeot and Oreca. Andrea Piccini took the P2 lead from Erdos and Pla, these three now having broken comfortably free from Pompidou. With 20 minutes to go Pla took his Ginetta free of everyone, putting a P2 car back in front overall with a 1:48.172. It wasn’t to last though. It seemed the threat would come from Lola Aston Martin at first, their momentum was still building and all three cars formed a magnificent sight as they lapped together on the track, clustering first, second and third in P1 by now with #009 leading #007 and #008. Despite the burgeoning Gulf-coloured presence, Belicchi and Bakkerud were the first P1s to spill ahead of Pla and we were getting close to full dry conditions. Belicchi’s time of 1:44.598 would see Speedy Racing untouched until the end.
Into the final quarter, #92 led from #89 – Dunlop from Hankook. The Spyker was in a very close third, but not for long; Lietz keeping Porsche in the hunt. Christophe Tinseau installed himself in the Pescarolo for the last ten minutes, presumably to ascertain if he could manage the discomfort from his rib injury. His first flier was the best for the car of the session, then building to second overall, so he could certainly focus through the pain for a quick series of laps at least – would he handle the endurance though? The fact that if he doesn’t race he loses out on a very strong chase of the drivers’ title must be weighing as heavily as the pain...
The final five minutes saw a flurry of quickest times, but last lap improvements were all but ruled out with the Easy Race Ferrari beached in the chicane and the Oak Pescarolo of Richard Hein also playing in the sand. #13’s 1:44.598 led #16 by 4/10ths, the same gap applied back to #007. Then it was #15, #14, #009 in P1, leading #40, #33, #29 and #30 in P2. In GT1 Saleen led Corvette by 3/10ths (20th and 21st overall), just ahead of the GT2 pack #92, #89, #77, #85, #84, #76 and #90. The top seven in GT2 were covered by two seconds, but it was then a further second back to the next, #91. #28 did not put in a show. We’ll try and find out why before this evening’s second practice session. PS |
