Dunlop LMS

LMS Monza - Saturday Morning

 

Still lovely and sunny (with a light cooling breeze) in Milan for the final free practice session of the meeting.

 

All 45 cars were out on track and the times were tumbling.

 

One car in early trouble though was the #1 Audi R10, Dindo Capello pitting after a tyre pressure warning successfully prevented damage from a rapidly deflating Michelin, the tyre having picked up a rogue bolt on the track.

 

 

A brief clash in the pitlane between one of the Embassy Racing WF01s and the #32 Barazi Epsilon Zytek saw the blue car pit again immediately but with no apparent damage.

 

The only other significant incident happened when Pierre Ehret spun into the first chicane on cold tyres the car stationary in the middle of the track where it was hit by an approaching Prototype (as yet unidentified) – The result was front end damage to the Farnbacher Ferrari, broken radiators and power steering, the team though believe it will be out again for qualifying. 

 

The action at the top of the timesheets was initially reasonably close, the #2 Audi looking closer to the Peugeots but then the 908s really went for it in the second half of the session, First gene, then Minassian and Lamy piling on the laps and bringing down the times dramatically – Before this morning the best time of the meeting had been Gene’s 1:33.113.  That was blown into the weeds on the old Banking first by the talents of Nic Minassian, down into the 1:32s, followed by a mid 1:32s effort form Lamy in the #8 car.  Minassian though would take the bragging rights with an astounding 1:31.606.

 

 

That would leave even the four diesels separated by an astounding 3 seconds.

 

The Lola Aston Martin headed up the petrol-powered runners with the Courage Orecas again next up, half a second down on the big coupe with the #5 and #6 cars separated by a mere tenth, Jamie Campbell Walter coming close too in the #14 Creation AIM in another very encouraging session.

 

LMP2 was again dominated by the Porsche RS Spyders, Jos Verstappen again setting a target time and then handing over the #34 car to Peter van Merksteijn.

 

By session end though Casper Elgaard had edged the Essex Racing RS Spyder ahead with a 1:37.928

 

 

“It was a little unexpected but we are very pleased with that.  We made some pretty big changes last night that seem to have made a real difference.  We can now fight for pole but better still the car is now very good for the race.  We have run tyres on the car for almost a whole stint length and they came off looking fantastic.”

 

For Jos Verstappen though the Dutch teams qualifying potential was “Going to be a surprise!”

  

Thomas Erdos was out and running well in the RML MG Lola, the RML crew by the way effected an engine change in just under 2 Hours and 30 minutes yesterday, having never managed it before in less than 4 hours, to get the car out in the second session.

 

 

With the #33 Lola Coupe closing the gap to the Porsches and Zytek in the hands of Andrea Bellichi and the #46 Embassy WF01 also picking up Lola like pace the qualifying session this afternoon could be very interesting indeed.

 

Andrea Bellichi:

 

“We have only run on old rubber so far today and this circuit is a more difficult one for us to dial the car into, far more high speed corners and very different to Barcelona.”

 

Michael Vergers: “Splitting the Porsches isn’t bad is it!  Fernando is doing a great job and we haven’t even got our top spec engine in (overheated after the Peugeot harpooned the car at Barcelona).  We’re looking very strong for the race.”

 

Over at Quifel ASM there’s a familiar face as race engineer.  Alan Mugglestone fulfilling the role as ‘boss’ this season.

 

The Team Modena Aston Martin again dominated GT1 with Thomas Enge at the wheel for much of the session, a 1:44.728 his best effort. Olivier Beretta was next quickest in the #72 Luc Alphand Corvette but almost a second down on the Aston with Peter Kox’s best effort good enough for third quickest.

 

In GT2 the early minutes once again saw the #77 Felbermayr Proton Porsche top the times with Alex Davison but then, with 20 minutes gone, the Virgo Motorsport Ferrari finally showed its pace, into the low 1:49s, more than a second faster than the Felbermayr car until Davison closed the gap to three tenths, Rob Bell responding with a lap down into the 1:48s (1:48.996)

 

 

“You can’t come here and set a lap time hoping that’s going to be good enough preparation for a race like this.  We’ve been solidly working through a list of jobs before going for real pace.  That lap was a simulated qually run, I’m not sure we have much more in the car whereas the Porsche might!”    

 

Markus Palttala meanwhile is clearly enjoying squeezing more and more out of the JWA Automotive 

 

“Tim (Sugden) is getting into his rhythm and going very well and Paul (Daniels) is doing a great job, finding big chunks of time in every session.

 

“The car is much better here than at Barcelona, the new gearbox has made a real difference (weight distribution and balance), and the relationship with Dunlop is coming along well too.  We don’t have the latest aero or the latest rubber yet, that should be here with us for Spa.  The team are doing a great job and we are finding progress all the time.”