ILMC/ LMS, Imola - More Post Practice Notes

Whilst the changeable conditions in the early part of this meeting have rendered the times somewhat meaningless there are some interesting conclusions to be drawn.

In both wet and drying sessions the Nissan engined Oreca 03s have been mighty, the LMP2s right in amongst the diesels on pace and keeping with them until the track became close to fully dry. – A wet race could prove very interesting indeed and, whilst the forecast doesn’t currently promise this it’s been rather less than pinpoint accurate so far!

Another car showing remarkable form in wet/ drying conditions is the Lotus Evora – Early in the third free practice session the #65 car was in amongst the leading cars in GTE Pro – Johnny Mowlem up to fourth on intermediates before the track dried sufficiently to allow the remaining cars to exploit their clear power advantage.

That shows that the basics of the Lotus programme are strong, the Evora proving to be a fine handling and remarkably reliable package from the very start of the programme.  More pace is needed of course but the factory have a reliable baseline to build upon - Gold dust in GTE!! 

One other note from the third session – the #2 Audi’s attack was blunted when the footrest came loose in the cockpit – a new car niggle best found now rather than tomorrow!