What a difference a few weeks – and a few hundred miles – can make. Some showers in practice, admittedly, and a threat of more late in the race, but Imola was a far cry from the thunderhead clouds and perpetual downpour that saw Silverstone’s ELMS three-hour abandoned. The grid numbers in Italy were markedly improved as well, with a field of 28 making it five up on Round One.
Many of the drivers will have viewed Imola as familiar territory, with the ILMC having made a joint appearance with the Le Mans Series at the home of the San Marino Grand Prix in 2011. No less than 18 LMP2 and FLM prototypes had taken to the track on that occasion, but the pace in 2013 was set to be significantly quicker. Despite two seasons of revised regulations, the lap times in practice suggested the Class of 2013 would be two or three seconds a lap faster.
Two years back the TDS Racing Oreca had been on pole in a best of 1:37.208. This year Matthias Beche would improve on that by more than two seconds, but still stand half a second shy of Oliver Turvey’s pole-grabbing 1:34.343 for Jota in the #38. Brendon Hartley narrowly missed out on a front row slot, pipped by just four one-hundredths of a second into third place. “We didn’t quite get it right in qualifying,” admitted the young New Zealander. “A slightly ‘off’ tyre pressure and encountering traffic on my second lap cost us a front row start, but third was still good.”
Indeed, it made little difference. When the lights went out for the start of the race on Saturday afternoon, Hartley was straight through to second place, even before the cars reached the first corner. Squeezing through on the inside, Brendon completed a clean and highly professional pass on Matthias Beche as the cars weaved through the Villeneuve chicane, emerging on the other side with a clear run ahead of him to Oliver Turvey in the Jota Zytek.
Initially, Turvey eased away a fraction, but as they negotiated Tamburello and then Tosa, Hartley narrowed the gap. Into the long left-hander at Piratella and down into Acque Minerali, Brendon started to build up an advantage over Beche in the Thiriet TDS Oreca, with the Signatech Alpine beginning to fall a few tenths further behind in fourth. Indeed, by the end of the second lap the first three had already broken clear, but Hartley was latched on tight to Turvey’s rear wing, never more than half a second adrift.
For the opening ten minutes there was hardly a hair’s breadth between the top three – sometimes half a second here or there, but rarely more. Judging by the way he was ducking and diving in the dirty air behind the Jota Zytek, Hartley appeared to have the edge, and would probably have pulled clear if he could only have found an opening to get through. “That Jota Zytek does seem to have a good turn of speed!” conceded Hartley. “Even so, I still think we had the better pace, but I just found it difficult to find a way past. When he jumped me in traffic I could always pull him back in pretty quickly.”
With Turvey defending cleanly and Beche equally forceful in his rear-view mirrors, just maintaining the challenge was enough. A little over fifteen minutes into the race and the leaders were starting to work their way through the tail-enders. There was a moment when one of the GT cars managed to get sandwiched between Turvey and Hartley, and that allowed the leader to ease out a breathing space, and Beche closed down tight onto the #38, but once the Murphey’s Man had snuck by, it was back to the status quo once more – for a couple of laps at least. Part way round the twelfth lap there was an occasion when Beche and Hartley worked through Tamburello almost side-by-side, but the Kiwi maintained his stride, and emerged confidently in front on the other side.
The leading trio seemed very closely matched at this stage, and even the top five were still only separated by about six seconds. “The traffic was making it a little difficult at times, but I always managed to make up any lost ground or build up a gap on Beche. It just depended on where you caught the traffic,” said Hartley.
Negotiating that traffic was certainly critical, and was probably having more bearing on the situation than anything else. There was a sharp intake of breath in the Murphy garage when Hartley came through to lap the #39 DKR Engineering Lola B11/40. Olivier Porta appeared not to have seen the green and white Oreca bearing down on him from behind and left precious little space. Hartley had to take swift evasive action, kicking up across the kerbs and getting a wheel or two onto the grass before regaining the track, but the heart-stopping moment appeared to spur him on. Within seconds he was picking up his pace along the start-finish straight and running side-by side with Turvey as they approached Tamburello. The leader had the better line and held his ground, but there was no doubting Hartley’s intentions. “I had a good look at him along the outside, but I simply couldn’t make it stick. The pace was very quick from all of us with no mistakes to take an advantage.”
In the end, that was as close as it got. With the first round of pitstops approaching, Turvey set some of his fastest laps of the race and briefly eased out a margin of just over a second over Hartley, before that dwindled away again. First to pit was Tom Kimber-Smith in the Greaves Zytek from sixth, followed by Panciatici in the Signatech Alpine from fifth, but next time around the leading three all took to the pitlane together, with Hartley just inches behind Turvey as the two cars hit the limiters.
Briefly, Frank Mailleux led for Morand Racing in the #43 Morgan. In the pitlane, Beche got the jump on Turvey in the Jota Zytek to emerge ahead, but allowing time for Mark Patterson to take over driving duties from Brendon Hartley was always going to see the Murphy Oreca losing ground. That was all anticipated as part of the team’s strategy, but what wasn’t expected was to encounter yet another issue with the starter motor – a problem that had first reared its head at Silverstone. This time Mark had the Nissan V8 fired up after about ten or twelve seconds of trying, and headed back out onto the track, but it could prove a costly delay.
Fresh from the car, Brendon appeared satisfied with his opening stint. “I passed Matthias Beche into turn one, and held on to P2. I put the leader under a lot of pressure throughout the whole run, and had one good look at him, but the problem is you lose a lot of downforce when you’re following closely. I was pushing as hard as I could to get the jump on him, but he did a good job to defend. There’s still a long time to go, but a really good first stint, so I’m happy with that.”
Patterson initially rejoined in sixth, but wasn’t quite up to speed when the Race Performance Oreca #34 came up on his tail, and snuck through to take the place. He settled for 7th with 27 laps completed.
The first hour slipped by, and after everyone had completed their pitstops, it was Matthias Beche leading from Oliver Turvey by about five seconds. Fifteen minutes or so later, the leaders came through to lap Patterson, but it wasn’t a straightforward moment. At first, Beche overtook the Murphy Oreca under yellows, then realised his error, and dropped back again, allowing Mark to regain the lap. Moments later, with the sector clear, he was back through again, but Turvey took advantage of the leader’s mistake. He clawed at least three seconds out of Beche’s lead, passed Patterson, and then bore down on the TDS machine, narrowing the gap to nearer two.
The race passed half distance, with Beche holding first by 2.2 seconds from Oliver Turvey, who was still closing steadily. Frank Mailleux was 30 seconds further back in the #34, with another six seconds to TK-S in the Greaves Zytek. The Signatech Alpine stood well back in fifth, with Race Performance 6th and then Mark Patterson 7th, some 42 seconds in arrears. “Mark’s pace steadily increased,” observed Hartley. “He dipped into the 1.38’s and was consistently improving. I was really impressed with the job he did.”
Mark’s mid-stint pitstop was a repeat of the first, but more so. With 52 laps completed he came in for fuel, but once again the starter proved reluctant. More than a minute was lost as he struggled to coax the engine into life, but it eventually fired up and he sped out onto the track once more.
Shortly afterwards there was another change for the lead, as Jota executed a copybook pitstop to have Simon Dolan out ahead of the Pierre Thiriet in the TDS Oreca, leaving Pierre Ragues in the #36 Alpine third, Natasha Gachnang’s Morand Racing Morgan fourth, David Heinmeier Hansson fifth for Greaves, Race Performance (Michel Frey) sixth, and Mark Patterson a more distant 7th, almost two laps off the lead.
With an hour and twenty remaining, the gap between Dolan and Thiriet was down to half a second, and when the duo hit traffic again, Thiriet proved the beneficiary, retaking first place from Dolan through Tosa as the Zytek worked round the DKR Lola.
There was briefly some concern over possible rain, as light drizzle started to fall around some sections of the track, but it never grew heavy enough to trouble the tyres crews. “Mark coped brilliantly through that tricky period,” said Hartley. “Sometimes he was lapping like the leaders, and keeping up a really good pace.” The marshals waved a few stripey flags at the chicanes and David HH passed Gachnang for fourth, but in time the threat from above receded.
The Signatech Alpine was one of the first to make the final pitstop, with 81 laps done. Panciatici took over from Ragues. The Greaves Zytek followed suit shortly afterwards, with Mark Patterson next along to the garages with the Murphy Oreca.
Mark Patterson clambered out with roughly 45 minutes remaining, and helped Brendon Hartley strap himself into the cockpit. Once again there was a delay on the re-start, but not so long this time, and Hartley encouraged life back into the Nissan at the cost of roughly 30 seconds. This time he wasn’t alone, and the Signatech Alpine also refused to restart. The delay meant that the Lola and the Greaves Zytek left the pitlane together, and Heinmeir Hansson was forced into a side-step at the exit to avoid ploughing into the rear of the slow-departing Panciatici. The #3 narrowly crossed the marker line on the pitlane exit as they rejoined the track, and would pay the price later.
Also on his out-lap was Simon Dolan in the Jota Zytek when he chanced upon the DKR Lola at the Villeneuve Chicane. There was contact, and the #38 was straight into the gravel. Dolan worked his way back out onto the track, but not before the #3, the #36, #43 and #34 had all swept by.
Matthias Beche in the leading TDS Oreca now enjoyed a massive advantage and would have an easy romp to the finish. Brendon Hartley, meanwhile, was still back in seventh, but lapping significantly quicker than anyone else on track. A 1:35.398 was the second-best lap of the race, and he was stringing them together one after the other. “The team told me the gap to Dolan was about 35 seconds to begin with, and that I had 30 minutes to catch him. I pushed as hard as I could through the traffic. It became a really enjoyable end to the race.”
Panciatici took second place from Heinmeier Hansson through Rivazza with fifteen minutes remaining, and then the Greaves car was issued with a one-minute stop-go for that line transgression, and dropped to fifth.
As the race entered its final five minutes, there was one last element of drama. Hartley had already closed to within two seconds of Dolan, and was starting to put the Zytek driver under even more pressure, when there was contact again. This time Dolan’s Zytek had a coming-together with the #30 Status GP Lola Coupé, and there was significant damage. With 104 laps of the 108 lap race completed, the #38 was out of the race.
Hartley watched the incident unfold ahead of him, and in the blink of an eye, was through, and speeding on his way to taking sixth at the flag. “I think I would have got him anyway,” suggested a confident Hartley. “I was really happy with that final stint, and it was very enjoyable to be allowed to push like crazy until the end. The car felt great!”
It was a comfortable win in the end for Thiriet by TDS from a rapid Panciatici in the Signatech Alpine second, and third for Morand Racing’s Morgan.
“We’re very disappointed,” admitted Greg Murphy. “I think we stole defeat from the jaws of victory. The race started so well for us, with Brendon running in second, and we had the pace to get on the podium, maybe even win the race. The problems in the pitstops, where the car wouldn’t start, cost us more than two laps. Without them, we’d have been on the podium, so obviously we’re disappointed. Mark did a great job though. He’s still very new to the car, and this was his first proper run in the dry.”
“One of the main reasons for coming here was to get me a lot of dry laps,” said Mark Patterson. “There was a bit of rain in practice, but we had virtually a dry race, and it was spectacular! We had a little problem in the pitstops, but other than that, all the coaching I’ve had from Brendon, moving things along, and trying harder and harder, and freeing things up, has made a huge difference. This car is spectacular, I promise you, it really is! In the technical, fast stuff, it’s out of this world. I was able to better my practice lap time by more than three seconds, and regularly too, two seconds or better, traffic and otherwise. All the help he gave me was fantastic.”
“Although we didn’t get the result we deserved it was hugely encouraging to see Mark and all the team doing such a great job,” said Brendon Hartley. “We showed that we both had great race pace. I’m actually really happy with the way things went for me, personally, and with the job I did through my first stint. I was right on the leader’s gearbox, right until the pitstop. You couldn’t have separated us. I did everything I could, but I just couldn’t get past. If anything, we were the quickest car on the track at the time. Unfortunately, the issue with the starter motor lost us so much time over the whole race, and was getting worse every time we stopped. That was a little bit heartbreaking.”
“But we came here to prepare for Le Mans, so it’s much better that it happened here, now, than in the 24 Hours. Mark picked up right where we left off in testing, and improved every lap. He did a really, really impressive job, especially for the seat time he’s had in the car. He was right up there with some of the best silver drivers – guys who’ve been doing this for years. So, it’s all looking really good for Le Mans, when Karun will be joining us, and I just can’t wait!”
“The one really positive thing we can take from this week is that Mark showed he is really, really quick – and getting quicker. With that knowledge, and Karun set to join us, we can look forward to Le Mans. We know that the car is also very fast and it ran reliably for the full three Hours, although we still have the one issue – re-starting the car during the pitstops. It’s something which has plagued us before. Over the next few weeks we’re really going to get stuck in and analyse what happened, and leave no stone unturned in our preparation for the 24 Hours. We’ll make sure we’ve got it sorted by the time we get to Le Mans.”
The test weekend is now just a fortnight away and will provide the first true test of whether or not the team has successfully addressed that starter problem. Rest assured, though, the Murphy Prototypes Oreca is going to be one of the strong contenders in this year’s 24 Hours, and if this one known problem can be overcome, then the ACO had better check that the Irish tricolour is cleaned, ironed, and ready for use.
