The taxi ride from DSC’s hotel to the circuit was a much quicker affair on Saturday morning than it had been during Friday’s rush hour, and the mist of the previous day had been replaced with full sun and much warmer temperatures. 28°C was the forecast high for the day, with race day looking like being a couple of degrees warmer still.
Pierre Kaffer was happy with the way things had gone for Pecom Racing on Friday; “It was pretty good – we had a menu of things that we wanted to test and worked through them well.
“It’s always difficult on the infield here. There’s the traffic, for one, but also it’s not quick enough to get the full benefit of aero – you need mechanical grip through there. But P2 will be the race to watch tomorrow. The cars are so evenly matched and I’m really looking forward to mixing it with the likes OAK, G-Drive and Delta.
“I love the track. We came second here last year, and it’s Luis’ home race.” Luis being Argentinean teammate Luis Perez Companc. “He only has to fly about two hours to get here, whereas he normally has a journey of at least 14. I think he’ll be in the air for about 24 hours when we go to Fuji!”
In the GTE-Am ranks, the first day had produced differing fortunes for two drivers well known to DSC regulars. “We had quite a few issues yesterday, but we were really pleased with how Jack [Gerber] did,” said Matt Griffin, who races the #61 AF Corse Ferrari. “That made up for a lot of the issues, and we think we’ve got to the bottom of them anyway. I started FP2 with a 1:35.8, which wasn’t too bad at that stage, but the car felt terrible, with huge oversteer. We made some changes and later Marco said it was 100% better.
“The thing with being in the Am class is that we need to give Jack at least half of the available practice time in order for him to get up to speed. That means that Marco [Cioci] and I only have 25% of the time each for us to work on set-up and sort out issues and it can be quite tough. Especially this week, when we’re up against Jamie Campbell-Walter and Stuart Hall in the #96 Aston – they can just concentrate on set-up this week.
“It’s a brilliant track, though. You need to be totally committed and when you’re on the limit, yo know you’re on the limit!”
For Campbell-Walter, this track is well known to him after several races here over the years; “Stuart [Hall] and I raced here in 2007 for Creation in the ELMS race and we came third. I’ve also been here with Lister in GT1 and I was here in 2010 with JRM. It hasn’t changed much in all that time!”
How’s it been so far? “So far so good. We’ve no Roald [Goethe] this weekend – he’s away on business somewhere, but thankfully he still entered the car and we’ve a good chance of doing well. Practice went well yesterday and we worked through a programme of settings; we’ll have a few more to make for today.
“The car feels strong and this is a good track for the car. But all the cars are close and it’s not easy to gain a lot of time here – there are only really two straights and if you take them away you’re left with about 45 seconds of slow twisty bits; so it’s a bit like Brands Indy! And tyre choice isn’t easy – we’ve only a choice of medium and hard compounds. The hards weren’t much good yesterday, but it was cooler than today and the race is going to be warmer still, so there’s a bit of guess-work involved. But everyone’s in the same boat.
“We should get a podium at least and a win at best.”
For the third session running, things got underway on time – we can’t recall a stoppage of any kind in any of the WEC or support sessions so far – and all 28 cars were out early to take full advantage of the 60 minutes available.
Allan McNish and Benoit Tréluyer were the first on duty for Audi, while Anthony Davidson was behind the wheel for Toyota and Matthias Beche was in the seat for Rebellion. The Scot was quickly down to business, with the #2 R18 e-tron quattro threatening the 1:22 barrier before the first five minutes had elapsed.
Björn Wirdheim set the early running in P2 with a 1:28.732 in the #41 Greaves Zytek, and had Mike Conway and Robbie Kerr close behind in the G-Drive/Delta-ADR Oreca Nissans.
Toni Vilander headed the GTE-Pro rankings in the #71 AF Corse Ferrari 458, with his1:34.230 being the car’s fastest of the meeting so far. Patrick Pilet was second quickest in the #91 Manthey Porsche, with Giancarlo Fisichella third in the #51 AF Ferrari.
The three Pro Aston Martins were the slowest in the class after ten minutes, with the #97 Vantage requiring an ECU change after developing a misfire.
In Am, meanwhile, we had the unexpected but pleasing sight of the Krohn Racing Ferrari 458 topping the times after a 1:34.923 from Maurizio Mediani – again the car’s fastest of the meeting and the second-fastest class lap of the weekend so far.
And it would remain that way for a bit longer as the first red flag appeared following a spin for Mike Conway. Paolo Ruberti was second quickest in the proton Porsche and Davide Rigon third for 8Star Motorsports.
The session resumed after a five-minute delay – the G-Drive Oreca having returned to the pits without much visible damage – and Allan McNish was straight back out to continue to lower the pace; the #2 Audi having set a new benchmark of 1:21.686 shortly before the stoppage. There had also been a change in the P2 standings before the reds came out, with Olivier Pla going fastest on 1:27.803 and Robbie Kerr going second with a 1:28.029 before handing over to James Walker.
It was now Porsche’s turn to take the fight to Aston Martin, with Richard Lietz setting a new fastest lap of 1:33.348 in the #92. Bruno Senna briefly had the #99 Vantage in second with a 1:33.804, but Pilet and Pedro Lamy (#98 Vantage) pushed the local lad back down to fourth; and then Lamy split the Porsches with a 1:33.529.
The two AF Ferraris had dropped to fifth and seventh. And we had a new fastest in Am, as Rui Aguas went top in the #81 458 on 1:34.393.
With 30 minutes gone, the hybrid P1s were covered by just 0.341 as the #1 Audi and #8 Toyota closed on McNish. Beche was still pushing on and got the Rebellion Lola down to a 1:24.089 before Nick Heidfeld took over.
The class orders continued to shuffle at a rapid pace as Walker took the Delta-ADR Oreca to the top of the P2 screen (1:27.307) and Pilet went faster than Lietz to top the Pro times (1:33.167).
The Pro order at this point (40 minutes) was Porsche, Porsche, Aston, Aston, Aston, Ferrari, Ferrari. It was unlikely to remain so tidy for the final 20 minutes.
Am was much more mingled – Ferrari, Aston, Porsche, Aston, Ferrari, Porsche, Ferrari, Corvette – but 8Star still led (Enzo Potolicchio now at the wheel) from AMR #96 (Stuart Hall).
Buemi closed the gap to the #1 Audi to 1.4s with 16 minutes to go, while the #41 Greaves Zytek had improved to fourth in P2. Darren Turner began the jumbling of the Pro ranks with a 1:33.126 in the #97 Aston, which was enough to head the class by a whopping 41-thousandths of a second.
A great lap from Heidfeld of 1:23.285 brought the Rebellion Lola to with 1.6s of P1 pole – by far the closest the privateer car had been to the factory entries.
With ten minutes remaining, the gaps from fastest to slowest in class were as follows:
P1 – 1.599
P2 – 3.210
Pro – 1.104
Am – 1.263
Heidfeld improved again to 1:23.065, but so did Marcel Fässler in the #1 Audi and went quickest with a 1:21.292 with eight minutes remaining.
P2 remained unchanged, although the times continued to close up – an improvement from the #31 Lotus leaving the top eight cars in class covered by 1.2s – while Gimmi Bruni was up to third in GTE-Pro after a late push in the #51 Ferrari. And it was getting very close at the top of the Am times as Christoffer Nygaard went second in the #95 Aston and Matt Griffin improved the #61 AF Ferrari to fourth. Mediani’s earlier time was still just 0.530s off class pole, but the Krohn Ferrari was now seventh in class.
As the session entered its final two minutes, Tom Kristensen improved the #2 Audi’s time to 1:21.501 and began his final lap with Anthony Davidson close behind. The Dane’s 1:21.644 was by no means a half-hearted effort, but the Toyota was two-tenths quicker and went second with a 1:21.452. 0.209s covered the tree factory cars.
The top five in P2 were covered by just 0.298s at the close, but without any change in order. A late improvement by Dominik Kraihamer lifted the #32 Lotus to sixth ahead of the Pecom Oreca, but there was no change in the Pro order other than the entire class was covered by just 0.732s!
8Star ended the session quickest in Am, with Enzo Potolicchio delighted to be quickest in class a year after taking the P2 win.
Next up – qualifying; and all the signs were pointing to the two sessions being very interesting indeed!
MH
