Fortunately, as it turned out, the earlier “Ciao Piaggio” translated to ‘goodbye rain’ rather than ‘hello rain’. For perhaps the first time all season there was real parity and the chance for the teams and drivers to show us what they really had.
The forecast for race day tomorrow is very similar to the conditions this afternoon so the session looked like being a very valuable one in terms of chasing the perfect set-up. This was a fact proven by every car taking to the track at the green light.
Race Performance are racing this weekend carrying a sign of support to Justin Meichtry, the young son of last year’s driver Ralph Meichtry who suffered several fractures in a horrible F4 accident a few weeks ago and faces a number of operations as a result. We all wish him well in his recovery too. Their driver Patric Niederhauser attracted perhaps rather too much attention though with a lurid half spin on his second flying lap on braking for Acque Minerale, doubtless still trying to get heat into his tyres.
Early on, Kox (#60) and Mowlem (#52) led GTC and GT for the eponymous team and RAM Racing with a 1:45.108 and 1:45.140 respectively, then swapping places as they moved into the 1:44.4s. Bertolini (#66) and Griffin (having taken the wheel of #52) swapped places a few times through the remainder of the session to leave the Irishman top of the GTE times by a tenth of a second with a 1:43.5. JMW, IMSA (Pat Long doing a sterling stand-in job as expected) and the sister Ram Racing car were next up. #62 and #72 were half a second back from Kox’s time.
Paul Loup Chatin was comfortably quickest in class in the #49 LMPC throughout, ending with a 1:40.037, 8th overall. Surely another foot in the doorway to Le Mans for this impressive young Frenchman? “That was very good because it was difficult this morning, we hadn’t realised that we had a slow puncture and the car was very unstable. The car was really fast this afternoon and I think we are working at the best potential of the tyres. When we are this close to the fastest P2 cars and my teammate is driving well you know it is good! I will go to the Le Mans24 hour test with the Signatech Alpine team next month. Not the race this year, but I hope to be there very soon.”
Panciatici, in that very Alpine, posted the first sub 1:37 lap with a 1:36.862, improving to a 1:36.629, 1:36.409 and ultimately an untouched 1:36.214. “I was surprised at my laptime because I am really still learning the track and am not at my best here yet. I only did 5 wet laps this morning but the car has been really strong all day. I will do the qualifying tomorrow so I hope we can be as strong there because there is definitely time to come.”
Kimber-Smith was first to pick up the gauntlet in the Greaves Zytek and move to second but was ultimately trumped by Hartley (#18) and Beche (#1), defenceless in the pits.
Natacha Gachnang had a strong and steady run, within a second of the other four drivers ahead of her at the time. She had reported the mornings session as “damp and difficult with a lot of traffic, but the car was good and just needed a few aero changes. It wasn’t the kind of session you could compare yourself with others, but it was very useful for getting a feel for the car and how strong it felt. We have a good car and a good team and a good engine and Silverstone proved that we will be competitive. It is good that we have signed Olivier Lombard for Le Mans, I met him for our test at Motorland and think he will do a good job for the team.”
Tony Burgess returned the #30 HVM Status Lola to the gravel, but this time on the entry to Rivazza. His team-mate, Jonathan Hirschi had put it into the gravel at Villeneuve in the first session, having reported “a brake problem. I wasn’t pushing at all hard because it was my out lap but the rear brakes locked and I span into the gravel. It was a difficult session anyway because the conditions were difficult to learn in those conditions and the points of view are very different in this closed car than in an open car.”
The session ended with only 52 minutes gone, Heinemeier Hanssson replicating Niederhauser’s half spin under braking into Acque Minerale, but this time clattering over the kerbs and ripping a couple of the inner kerb ‘ramps’ out and onto the track.
The team’s will have been glad of consistent and largely incident-free session and it is all very much still to play for tomorrow.
Paul Slinger
