That was a short night! The Circuit action finished at midnight and your team needed to get back to Chateau Nouveau and unwind over a beer or two or three with Pastis chasers ( We are now hooked on ‘51’ .. apparently called this since it was first brewed in 1951 .. not a lot of people know that!). Anyway we are back in action again and trying to recall what happened last night.
For a start it didn’t rain in the end .. mind you who believes weather forecasts anyway.. so it was a pretty straight forward sort of session. The kind we have come to expect nowadays. So what did we expect? Well.. question one was will the Audis be in touch with the Peugeots? Will the Peugeots need to try at all? Will a petrol car get in amongst the diesels? What will the ‘swan song’ of LMGT1 be like? Will Porsche remember how to race at Le Mans? How quick will Nigel Mansell & Sons Ltd be? Will the Lambo complete an entire lap? Will the Jaguar XKRS risk coming off its axle stands and tackle a lap? Will the Ford GTs be mended in time ?
Lets take them one at a time… Since we are in France and are being ‘force fed’ all things French lets look at Audi.
They are here five cars here … three of which are R15 and two are veteran R10s. . All the R15s are actually run by Joest .. who are really a wholly owned subsidiary of Audi. One car runs under the Audi Sport North America banner and the other two under Audi Sport Team Joest. The R10s are run by Kolles… the same guys as run the Hispania F1 team.. which thinking about it doesn’t bode well!
The ‘works’ Audis are of course immaculate.. the team personnel all match in size, shape and attitude .. haven’t we seen this before somewhere? Their driver line up is mighty impressive but their track record this year has not really come up with the goods. Dr Wolfgang Ullrich told the press that Audi are here to win.. ummm… and that they will be building an R18 for 2011. The ‘front running’ Audis certainly did not look like race winners at any point during qualifying .. bit harsh that, but true. Their quickest car was the #9 driven by Bernhard,Dumas and Rockenfeller and they were a massive 3:23.578 secs behind the quickest Peugeot. More worrying was that we reckon the ‘star’ car ought to be #7 with Capello,Kristensen and McNish but they were languishing 7th with a 3:24.668 secs. But , as usual, Audi were giving away nothing and seemed their usual unperturbed selves. That well used cliché '24 hrs is a long race' springs to mind.
It was Peugeot who looked very quick indeed and seemingly not really trying all that hard! Proof, if proof were needed, was when the #4 Team Oreca Matmut LMP1 Peugeot 908 driven by Nicolas Lapierre got stranded out on the circuit with a 'fuel' problem (rumoured to be more of a 'lack of fuel problem') after just six laps but it still stayed at the top of the times for a large part of the session eventually fading back to 4th.
In the end Bourdais decided that he was bored and would go out and play and promptly banged in a rather tasty 3:19.711secs.. which was rapid, particulary when compared with last year's 3;22.888 secs... I bet you have just glanced back at those Audi times .. The 'Lions' settled into a relaxed sort of routine which resulted in them cleaning up the two front rows on the grid! With the weather forecast looking distinctly damp for later today this may well be the grid for The Race. Surely not what Audi had in mind..?
The diesel.v.petrol contest really is a non starter .. the diesels (mostly French) are so, so much quicker and the regs still seem to be loaded against the petrol ( mostly not French!) cars.. do we spot a trend here? David Richards has gone to press stating that an Aston Martin 'Works Team' won't be back in 2011 if the regs don't change.. at first glance the 2011regs don't seem to be going to help. But we would be happy to stand corrected.
The #007 Aston Martin Racing LMP1 Lola Aston Martin driven by Harold Primat, Stefan Mücke and Adrian Fernandez Aston Martin Racing LMP1 Lola Aston Martin put in a 3:26.680 secs, this was two seconds off the Diesel pace. The #009 Aston Martin Racing LMP1 Lola Aston Martin driven by Darren Turner next. There are a few other 'stars' in LMP1 this year.. Milord Grayson's was 45 secs slower than F1 Superstar and 1992 BBC Sports Personality of the year, Nigel Mansell ! But ##11 the Drayson Racing LMP1 Lola Judd Coupe driven by Emanuele Pirro just pipped the Mansell family car Greg Mansell into 15th place .
In LMP2 .. the naturally aspirated petrol class and basis for future of Le Mans cars.. was comfortably cleaned up by the #42 Strakka Racing LMP2 HPD ARX.01 driven by Jonny Kane. They were four seconds quicker that the #26 Highcroft Racing LMP2 HPD ARX.01 driven by David Brabham.
LMGT1 is on the way out for 2011.. they will no longer be eligible.. which this scribe feels is a pity since he is 'anti prototype' and 'pro' cars that look like GT machines! The prospect of Aston Martin .v. Ford GT .v. Corvette really is rather tasty... three rather different approaches to a 'proper' GT car. Assuming you were taking 'her indoors' for a whizz to Monaco for a flutter any one of these would fill the bill .. you might lose your licence but at least they are proper 'Grand Tourismo' machines with transcontinental ability. Top of the pile at the moment is the #52 Young Driver AMR LMGT1 Aston Martin DBR9 driven by Tomas Enge. The Young Driver Team is semi-works supported operation and more details will emerge when the press packs get here from Copenhagen tommorow ! Second in LMGT2 is #60 Matech Competition LMGT1 Ford GT driven by Thomas Mutsch. This car, you may recall, attacked the scenery yesterday and looked a bit second hand but they did a grand job getting it straightened out and it is back on the pace. We keep on getting waves of nostalgia every time we see them out on the track.. they really do look like the real things .. ah ..what memories .. good to see Ford Motor Co back at Sarthe! Third in class is #73 Luc Alphand Aventures LMGT1 Corvette C6.R driven by Julien Jousse. These big bangers do sound delicious and they really don't look in slightest bit stressed.. The Corvette guys have always tended to be heroically laid back and probably 'sand-bagging'.. who knows. By the way Luc Alphand is a bit of a hero in these parts. He was a great international skier who turned to rallying and won the Paris Dakar in 2006. This all action man is currently out of action having crashed heavily on motorbike rally earlier this year.
So, what next? It all kicks off again at 19:00hrs with the first of the qaulifying sessions... tonight the entertainment has changed and it yet another famous French Group called 'Les Tambours du Bronx'.. they are 17 'French Industrial Percussionists' .. the mind boggles.
It is raining at the moment and forecast is not encouraging ..
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