Prototype qualifying took a while to get going for two reasons. First, some of the big guns like Hartley, Turvey, Pantiatici and Mailleux left it late to start, doubtless because they have to start on the tyres that they qualify on; second because Lecuyer in the #47 PC car had a spin just before the finish line and was broadise to drivers left leaving that section of the track under yellow flags for several minutes.
The final 10 minutes were exciting and entertaining though, heralded by the recovering Lecuyer almost reversing into Beche as he finally recovered to the track.
Beche had been the early front-runner with a 1:35.5, tailed by Kimber-Smith with a 1:36.030 and Mailleux with a 1:36.728.
Into that last ten minutes and Turvey installed himself at the top with a 1:35.162. Panciatici had a 360 degree smoky spin in the same place and manner as Lecuyer whilst trying to crack the top four. His tyres seemed good enough to continue to challenge to the end of the session but a Michelin engineer (somewhat reluctantly) admitted to us that they were checking the balance of them after qualifying to assess how they might fare in the race.
Turvey had only served us with an entrée thus far however, going on to a 1:34.574, then a 1:34.343 and was looking even quicker again into his next lap but with half a second advantage over the rest and most of those already pitted, he brought it back in. “We were focussing on race set-up in the dry session yesterday and I only had five laps then, giving the rest of the time to Simon [Dolan]. Qualifying went really well, I love this track, having done it only once before in a single seater, but it is a great challenge for a driver, the elevations and undulations and being able to use the kerbs. To get the second pole of the year is great. We’ve only done 3 laps of pushing on these tyres so we’re probably in the best position of the front-runners in that regard. It really feels as though we are getting the best out of everything at the moment, I am pushing the team hard but they are responding.”
Only Panciatici would improve late on with a 1:35.538, regaining fourth on the grid at the expense of Tom Kimber-Smith. Beche and Hartley were second and third quickest, #1 with a 1:34.914 and Hartley missing out on a second front row grid spot by just 37/1000ths of a second.
The PC cars all left it to the final two laps to set their times and Hirsch was convincingly quickest with his penultimate lap at a 1:39.222. Lecuyer and Pons at that stage were in the low 42s. Lecuyer made that a 1:41.7 on his final lap and Pons to a 1:42.093, but that will mean that #48 will start behind the quickest two GTE cars.
This was a fine display and the stage is set for what should be an endurance classic at 4pm this afternoon.
Paul Slinger
