It was as cold and wet a start to the season as any nervous debutant could fear and the conditions ultimately gave little real indication of early form.
The track was extremely wet at the 9:00 am start and aquaplaning was rife, as were harmless spins into the gravel. The rain died away and the track dried quickly as the hour ticked away so all the quick times were set in the last couple of minutes, when the sun even tried to make an appearance.
Wolf Henzler had “no expectations at all this season as I only met my teammate yesterday and he doesn’t speak any English so I really don’t know how fast he will be. I am racing here, at Hungary and Paul Ricard but ALMS Mosport and the Nurburgring 24 Hours mean I will miss the other two rounds of the ELMS.” His teammate, Patrice Milesi, had a somewhat troubled start with a few spins “especially on the old surface. There was a lot of aquaplaning but the newer parts were better.”
Brendon Hartley in the Murphy Prototypes Oreca was the fastest out of the box in the early tricky conditions with a 2:16.719 only matched subsequently (and bettered) by Turvey in Jota’s Zytek.
The relative pace of the GTC cars in the first half of the session was a surprise to some. They were around 8 seconds faster than their GTE counterparts, but this was nicely explained by RAM Racing’s Matt Griffin: “When it is very wet the GTC cars will romp away from the GTE cars because of the ABS and they also suffer less from aquaplaning and have a softer set-up generally,” he said. “The ABS is the main thing because they don’t have to worry about sliding off on every braking zone like we do. It’s a hard thing for the ACO to balance to be honest, because of the level GTC is aimed at, you can’t take the ABS away and also they need to try to ensure that the slowest drivers in GTE are quicker than the fastest in GTC in the dry.”
The Belgian Dylan Derdaele put in some strong early times in the mid 2:20s in his GTC class Audi R8 LMS, whilst Joel Camathias led GTE in the first half for JMW, but only with a 2:32.441.
Loup Chatin in the #49 FLM and Soheil Ayari in #48 traded places at the top of FLM in the wet in the 2:18s, advantage Ayari by the end.
The last 10 minutes saw Andrea Rizolli rise to the top of GTC in the sole Ferrari with a 2:21.939, signalling a change in conditions and perhaps the approach of some teams as they began to push. None more than Nelson Panciatici who took the #36 Signatech Alpine quicker and quicker every lap until the end of the session, closing with a 2:06.179 despite pitting before the chequered flag.
Nelson Panciatici “The track was improving every lap and the line was more and more dry. I’m happy because it was my first time in the car in the wet and it felt really good. It is the first time we have used this wet tyre as well so we really didn’t know which way it would go. Pierre (Ragues) said the car was really hard to keep in a straight line at the start of the session because of the aquaplaning and it really wasn’t easy for him. To be driving for Alpine, such a famous name in France and to be quickest this morning feels really nice.”
The other stand-out was Matt Griffin in the RAM Racing Ferrari, posting a 2:17.756 to head GTE by 4.5 seconds “Well we got something out of that session which was good. We have a slight electrical issue related to misfiring and whilst it went away with some changes I made in the car we can sort it out properly before the next session. Straight out of the box the car was pretty good and the setup feels pretty stable for the wet. If it stays wet for the rest of the sessions and the race then we already know we can go straight up to speed. In these conditions we are closer on pace to the P2 cars and I was passing a few, so life is actually easier for us when it is like this.”
The day’s second ELMS practice session follows at 14:10 pm.
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