This report has been prepared by James Goodwin using the ACO’s latest “free” mobile phone and iPad App. More on the significance of this later . . .
So a new season and a new App, and to see how it keeps the standard race fan in the know the premise for my qualifying report was simple, follow and report on qualifying simply using the free version of the new World Endurance Championship App.
First came the GTE PRO and AM cars but as the cars rolled out of the pits the first issue with the free version of the App became apparent. There didn’t appear to be any form of countdown clock essentially taking away the build-up to a crescendo at the end of the session. In other words I had no idea when the session was due to end. Back to the track though and as the first lap times began to come in it was Parente in the #52 RAM Racing Ferrari who was the first to dip under two minutes. Posting a 1:59.999, however, immediately Sam Bird eclipsed that time with a 1:59.055 taking his GTE AM car to the top of the overall times.
As the first drivers were finishing up and getting ready for their racing speed pit stops the times changed dramatically. Parente, Bird and then Rigon all topped the times and it looked like it was going to be Ferrari domination until Tandy in #91 Porsche became the only car to average under 1:59 as he ended his stint his average over his two laps stood at 1:58.718.
At the half way stage as each of the cars came in to change driver it gave me an opportunity to list the running order in PRO
#91 Porsche
#51 Ferrari
#71 Ferrari
#92 Porsche
#97 Aston Martin
#52 Ferrari
#99 Aston Martin
and in GTE AM
#81 Ferrari
#88 Porsche
#98 Aston Martin
#61 Ferrari
#90 Ferrari
#95 Aston Martin
#75 Porsche
#53 Ferrari
At this point it became a little difficult to follow just on the App. It had been a little easier when the cars were running round in order but now that they had all pitted and were on different numbers of laps the timing screen became a bit of a puzzle until cars began to complete their fourth lap.
First to do so was Matt Griffin in the RAM Racing Ferrari giving the car a slightly disappointing average of 2:00.318. It seemed as the laps were rolling in that GT pole was going to be between AF CORSE and Porsche. As the final lap times were coming in it looked like Porsche had done it but on his final lap Vilander popped the #51 Ferrari back into pole. The #51 car proved consistency was key as they were the only car to finish with all their laps under two minutes. It was double the celebrations for AF CORSE, on a very busy weekend for them, as they took pole in both GT classes with the #81 car taking pole in GTE AM.
The top ten looked like this
#51 Ferrari (PRO)
#91 Porsche (PRO)
#92 Porsche (PRO)
#71 Ferrari (PRO)
#81 Ferrari (AM)
#97 Aston (PRO)
#52 Ferrari (PRO)
#98 Aston (AM)
#61 Ferrari (AM)
#95 Aston (AM)
So after a very close GTE qualifying then came the battle for overall pole. As they came round for the first time it was Kristensen, Webber, Dumas, Wurz in that order with very little to choose between them. Second time round we had all three manufacturers in the top three as Davidson popped up in to 3rd hot on the heels of the #1 Audi and #14 Porsche.
As the first drivers came in to hand over the average times were as follows
#1 Kristensen Audi 1:42.625
#14 Dumas Porsche 1:42.729
#8 Davidson Toyota 1:42.767
#20 Webber Porsche 1:42.815
#7 Wurz Toyota 1:42.827
#2 Treluyer Audi 1:43.411
#13 Leimer Lola 1:43.829
#12 Heidfeld Lola 1:43.877
As the second drivers headed out it remained very close with #7, #1 and #8 all lapping in the 1:42s. Jani in the #14 Porsche didn’t seem to be able to get the same level of pace out of the car that Dumas had previously but hung on to keep 3rd. So it was between the #1 Audi and #7 Toyota for pole. On average after their four laps were complete the Audi had it but there was still time for one more lap. Nakajima improved significantly and overhauled the Audi’s average time to take pole by just 5 thousandths of a second. The Toyota was also the only car to have all four of their laps in the 1:42s.
So the session ended
#7 Toyota
#1 Audi
#14 Porsche
#2 Audi
#8 Toyota
#20 Porsche
#13 Lola
#12 Lola
Finally was LMP 2 but with all the excitement of the LMP 1 battle it was difficult to keep an eye on LMP 2. Pla had the early pace in the #26 G-DRIVE Morgan Nissan initially posting a 1:49.188 and then following that with a very rapid 1:48.916. The KCMG car was also circulating rapidly in the hands of Matsuda just a couple of tenths off of Pla.
Rusinov took over in The G-DRIVE car and continued Pla’s good work posting two low 1:49s leaving KCMG too much to do. Both SMP cars failed to break the 1:50 barrier in any of their laps so they have a bit of work to do to be competitive tomorrow.
#26 Morgan Nissan 1:49.156
#47 Oreca Nissan 1:49.439
#37 Oreca Nissan 1:51.236
#27 Oreca Nissan 1:51.514
So using the new App to follow qualifying was challenging and we will have a full review later this evening but importantly it works and one thing that is clear we have got a great race to look forward to tomorrow.
James Goodwin
