Nurburgring – First Hour
Dull At The Front – Daft Really

In puzzling over tyres, in P1, our technical source suggests that “the actual torque through the driveshafts, and therefore the tractive effort at the base of the tyres, is very similar between a diesel and petrol LMP1 - it is actually relative to the power NOT the torque.

“Why? The overall gearing, top gear and final drive, on a Petrol LMP1 to give 200mph @ 9,000rpm is 3.25:1. On a Diesel, peak power is going to be at just over 4,500rpm which means an overall gearing of 1.625:1. Multiply the engine torque figure by the gearing to get the driveshaft torque - not a lot different, so of little relevance with respect to tyre choice.”

Ah, but the way the Peugeots seem to corner on rails (here), presumably the tyres are optimised for masses of downforce?

Anyway, here we go, with hopefully a great race in store. We’ve kept LMP and GT text separate for the first hour.

LMP1s & LMP2s – First Hour
A nice touch before the start – a handshake between Minassian and Lamy, from the rival Peugeots, one about to start (Minassian) the other watching until the first driver change. What has Minassian got in store from the rolling start? And feisty old Jean-Marc, from the third row?

Lammers.. late out? Starting from the back, anyway.

Well, it was an exciting first pit straight.. as Gounon did charge down the inside of Cochet, who was inside Chilton.

But at the front, the 908s just ran away and hid.

The order behind stayed very static – Gounon, Cochet, Collard, Chilton, JC-W, Barbosa passed Erdos after six laps or so, then behind the P2 leader we had Primat, Moseley, Berridge, de Castro, Barazi, Hughes, Mucke up to 16th after ten laps (73 seconds behind Minassian), then Theys, Jouanny, Lammers, Lavaggi, Rostan and de Pourtales.

But the Peugeots – they lapped in 1:44 from the start, four seconds quicker than the rest. Minassian was 33 seconds ahead of Gounon after 10 laps. Hugh Chamberlain’s words are ringing in our ears. This isn’t a race for the lead, for the petrol-powered cars….

13 laps and the gap to Gounon is 41 seconds. Without the Peugeots, it would be a very good race, #13 to JC-W in seventh is only six seconds.

14 laps, 44 seconds. At least Mucke is still on the move, up to 15th place, just behind Barazi.

Binnie has been delayed, and Rostan was tapped into a spin by a Panoz at T1.

15 laps, 28 minutes, 48 seconds the gap – still only seven back to JC-W in seventh. Perhaps we ought to just ignore the Peugeots? Minassian leads Sarrazin by one second after 16 laps, the Peugeots lapping in 1:46/47 in traffic, the rest in 1:51.

Half an hour gone and Gounon trails by 51 seconds. A lap later (17) and it’s 56 seconds. Call that 1 minute after 18 laps, less than 10% of the race (195 laps), so the gap will be 10 minutes at the end, at least.

Erdos to Moseley for the P2 lead is 11 seconds, Barazi having slipped to fourth (a good fourth though).

19 laps and 13 cars are on the same lap as Minassian, who leads Sararzin by 0.328. Gounon is now over a minute behind (64 secs.). Traffic has stretched the gap from third to seventh (now 11 seconds, Jean-Marc to Jamie C-W. Barbosa in the other Dunlop-shod P1 is within striking distance of the Creation. The Portuguese has pulled out 13 seconds over the P2 leader (Erdos, ninth) .

The Lavaggi is lapping in 1:55 in 20th place.

Minassian is about to lap Berridge, who is 11th, seven seconds behind Primat.

This is a parade or a charade or something….

40 minutes and only ten cars on the lead lap. But on that 22nd lap, at least traffic kept the 908s to 1:49s, only two seconds quicker. They’re having their moments in traffic, but being able to blat past anything on the straight must reduce the risks.

20, 29 and 31 bring up the tail of P2, these three buried among the GT1s.

43 minutes and there’s been very little drama among the Ps. Mucke Is now 9 seconds behind 11th placed Berridge . Unfortunately we don’t have best laps on the screen, only the last lap. 1:44 vs. 1:48 are probably the best though (Peugeot / Gounon).

45 minutes gone and J-MG is 78 seconds behind.

Traffic is hairy, so there should be dramas ahead……

Berridge is first P1 man to pit (puncture). He resumes, with just fuel.

49 mins. and Sarrazin pits, for fuel and tyres. He resumes in second place, 71 secs behind Minassian, 13 secs ahead of Gounon. It’s a parade.

Moseley and de Castro are having a good race for second in P2, as are Collard and Chilton for third in the LMP1P race. Courages 1-2 (in class), 5 seconds apart.

30 laps / 54 mins, Minassian pits for tyres and fuel. He still leads. Cochet then pits from fourth – Chilton too. A wave of stops – and the Lavaggi spins as it leaves the pit lane… losing a chunk of.. floor?

Just after the hour, Minassian pits again.. unscheduled of course.

GT1s & GT2s First Hour
In GT1 it was as you were from qualifying in the opening minutes, Soheil Ayari in the #55 Oreca Saleen able to pull away from the chasing Astons seemingly at will.

Bouchut though was soon up into second in class. This despite contact with Bill Binnie’s recovering Lola, the Larbre man was soon back up to speed and by the #59 Team Modena Aston of Antonio Garcia. In GT2 Allan Simonsen was utterly dominant in the opening minutes, 3 seconds up on a pack of chasing Porsches after lap 1 and thereafter stretching away to a lead of around 9 seconds after 20 minutes.

Dirk Werner was best of the rest at this point in the #90 Farnbacher Porsche, fending off the very close attentions of both Xavier Pompidou in the #77 Felbermayr-Proton car and Richard Lietz in the Le Mans 24 Hours class winning #76 IMSA performance car: the #76 car was falling back and fending off Johnny Mowlem in the fastest of the GPC Ferraris.

There were early problems for the #88 Felbermayr car (spin at Turn 1 for Thomas Gruber), the #92 Thierry Perrier Porsche (pit stop for suspected puncture), the #82 Team LNT Panoz, Richard Dean being tagged into a spin by Janis’s Spyker and then tagging the Pilbeam into turn one, the orange car though was climbing up the order from as far back as 17th in class after the Spyker’s love tap up to 12th as the half hour approached. The Chad Panoz also had a very early stop, reason unknown at present.

In the second half hour Simonsen’s lead began to stretch even faster in GT2 (12 seconds by 35 minutes) whilst in GT1 even a visibly aggressive charge from Bouchut seemed powerless to prevent the Oreca Saleen stretching its lead too (10 seconds after 37 minutes).

Dirk Werner couldn’t catch Simonsen but the Farnbacher man was now pulling away from Pompidou, whilst further back down the order, a moment for Janis meant that Dean reclaimed the place he had lost to the quick young Czech’s earlier contact, the #82 car now 11th in class with tom Kimber Smith 8th in the #’81 car.

Contact with a prototype saw de Simone spin in front of the Villorba corse Ferrari of Denny Zardo, the young Italian braking to a halt to avoid the #97 car, but both would continue without losing their 6th and 7th places in class.

Two Corvettes making early stops were the #72 Luc Alphand C6.R of Jerome Policand and the Markland Racing GT2 car of Kurt Thiim. The GT1 car would fall to the back of the class field whilst the GT2 car didn’t have far to fall in any case.

More drama for GPC at the 46 minute mark as Johnny Mowlem is very slow on track in the (until then fifth in class) #83 car, Zardo now grabs that place as the Villorba Corse car has now got by the other GPC machine. Mowlem’s car has stopped out of sight from us out on the circuit, apparently with no drive.

There are dramas too in GT1, Bouchut has clearly had a moment and drops back to fourth in class behind Garcia and Cioci in the #61 Racing Box Saleen, the #61 car right on the tail of the Team Modena Aston. But Cioci pits before the position can change, Bouchut back up to third for now at least.

The GT2 lead gap is now a full 20 seconds as the hour mark gets closer with Ayari’s gap in GT1 up to 13 seconds before the Saleen makes its first routine stop at 57 minutes (29 laps). Garcia leads as the Saleen is fuelled. But Bouchut and Dumez (in the #73 Alphand Corvette C5-R also pit.

There’s a spin for Joel Camathias as he becomes the meat in the sandwich between Jonny Kane (#94 Spyker) and Joao Barbosa, the Italian though recovers and continues.