ALMS, Petit Le Mans Qualifying

Peugeot 1-2; Ferrari 1-4

First blood at Petit Le Mans went to Peugeot, as they swept the front row in qualifying.  Anthony Davidson made amends for his crash last night by taking pole with a time of 1:07.187, .222 seconds over Pedro Lamy.

LMP2 pole went to Guy Smith, his second of the season.  He nipped past Klaus Graf late in the session, taking class pole by .13 seconds.

In GT(2) qualifying, it was an all Ferrari affair, as in what may be the last race of the 430, the Italian make swept the top 4 spots on the grid.  The top two spots belonged to the Risi team, with Jaime Melo and Gianmaria Bruni swapping the top spots in the session, with Extreme Speed taking 3rd and 4th.

In the Challenge classes, it was Luis Diaz taking his 3rd pole in a row for Corsa in the LMPC class, while Jeroen Bleekemolen continued his dominance of the class by taking his 6th pole of the season.

Peugeot had it cranked up this afternoon – the tell tail smoke was evident from the French diesels.  But in a good sign for the race, the Audis were not that far behind.  Benoit Treluyer was just over .4 seconds back, while the not quite right yet No. 7 with Didno Capello at the wheel was .9 seconds back.

For Davidson, this was a nice return to a track he last raced at in 2003.  “It’s a great track to drive – phenomenal in qualifying trim in the Peugeot.  I’ve been enjoying every lap here, even though I haven’t had many due to the conditions here.  I got a bit of a tow into 10A on my fast lap, which may have helped.”

Both of Smith’s poles this year have come at Mazda sponsored events.  “The Mazda sponsored events bring added pressure, but it doesn’t change how hard we work.  We’re always giving it our all.  It’s been a difficult week – we haven’t really known where we were in comparison to the others as we’ve had an oil leak and then with the weather.  We knew it was going to be close battle all the way through the session.  We’re not in the battle for the championships, but we’d love to end the season on a high.”  Guy is anticipating the arrival of his 3rd daughter next month.  In his words, “my life will officially be over.”

As usual, GT(2) was tightly bunched, but for one last time in ALMS competition, the Ferrari 430 came out on top in qualifying.  The top 10 in class were within less than a second of each other.  With the multiple championships on the line in the class, this one should go all the way to the end.

This was the 3rd pole of the season for Melo, and he was “a bit surprised about it.  I expected to be on the first or second row, but not really on pole.  For us, we’re looking for the Championships.  61 or 62 – it doesn’t matter.  We’re in this race to win.”

This far, this event has been a strong one for Risi, being at or near the top in most of the sessions.  While a Risi win here wouldn’t be a surprise – after all they’ve won most of the big races multiple times – it won’t be easy.  BMW is right there, hungry to win a championship and Corvette Racing is desperate to get a win in here in 2010.  Down at an uncharacteristicly low 8th spot in class was the No. 45 Lizards Porsche.  While the position appears to be low – their time wasn’t all that far off.  They’ve been there before and have won from such a position.  They’ll be right there at the end.

Since switching over to the LMPC class, Luis Diaz has recovered the speed he was able to display with Fernandez last season.  “We didn’t test here earlier, so we sort of had a difficult start for the weekend.  The crew made it a great car in a very short time and I’m very happy for the team.  For the race, we just have to keep cool and calm and hopefully be there at the end to challenge for the win.”

In GTC, the season has really belonged to Black Swan Racing.  Despite missing Sebring, they’re in a commanding place in the points and Bleekemolen just placed an exclamation point on their success of the season with the pole here.  “It was tight.  I pitted and went back out and improved my time a bit.  We want to race hard, but we don’t want to lose it on the first lap.”  Even though they’re leading the points, “we’ll push hard all the way.  That’s the way racing should be.”

Not making it on track for the session was Drayson (crash damage) and the Porsche Hybrid (no reason to).  Also missing the session were the No. 33 Jaguar and the 73 Intersport LMPC entry.

As usual, Petit Le Mans is shaping up to be quite an event.  So far, it’s lived up to the expectations, in spite of the weather issues.  One thing to look for tomorrow is traffic.  The general consensus is that traffic will play a big part in the outcome of not just the overall race, but also the individual championship chases.