The sun continued to beat down for the afternoon Blancpain Endurance Series practice session at Paul Ricard, but was now accompanied by a noticeable breeze and temperatures were beginning to fall slightly as the cars took to the track.
Jerome D’Ambrosio was first under the two-minute mark on his first flier, with a 1:59.314 in the #8 M-Sport Bentley. Alvaro Parente almost matched his time in the #98 ART McLaren and Nissan’s Katsumasa Chiyo picked up where he left off in FP1 with an opening gambit of 1:58.989, quicker than team-mate Alex Buncombe’s opener of 1:59.421.
In the gentlemen class, Francisco Guedes had the #51 AF Corse Ferrari on top by a comfortable margin in early stages, with a 2:00.597. He stayed on top until the end of the session, improving to a 1:59.823 on his eighth lap. Leonardo Gorini in #350 Duqueine Enginnering Ferrari (a one-off entry at this round) was the only driver to get within a second of Guedes’ time, winding up second in the Gentemen Trophy ranks.
Meanwhile, Andreas Simonsen took the #19 Black Falcon Mercedes fastest with a 1:58.591, then a 1:58.478. The quick Swede, fresh off a podium finish in last weekend’s Nurburgring 24 Hours, eventually ranked seventh overall and fourth-fastest Pro car. “I was blocked by an Audi on my fast lap, so it could have been quicker,” he said. “We have a strong qualifying setup now, we just need to do some work for the race, so we’ll be putting new tyres on and see how they degrade over a long stint.”
Like Dusseldorp in the HTP car, Simonsen wasn’t entirely satisfied with the SLS’ speed down the Mistral. “It’s never been that good for top speed, but it doesn’t really feel fair at the moment – the turbo cars are just running away with it down the straight.”
With just over an hour to go, a 1:58.503 from Olly Bryant suggesting that the Ecurie Ecosse Z4 had managed to find some top-end. Meanwhile, Toyota LMP1 star Nicolas Lapierre took over #98 McLaren from Parente, while Kessel Racing’s Marco Frezza put in the strongest showing for a Ferrari so far a 1:58.487 that put him second. He then went quickest overall with a 1:58.158.
The time that would not be bettered before the chequered flag waved shortly after 4:30pm. ““I did four laps on old tyres then came in for new tyres and did the time on my third lap on those,” Frezza told us during the session. “This is only the second time in my life I have raced on Pirellis. On the new tyres you have maybe a second a lap for two or three laps maximum, but they are holding up okay after that. I think from today the team have done a great job, the car is perfect. We are ready for qualifying tomorrow and think we can have a good weekend. It is my first time in Blancpain and I really like the series, I’ll be back with Kessel in Spa and Nurburgring, so thank you to them for that.”
With many of the quick men in Pro-Am having done their work and given their feedback to the engineers, the times stabilised as their team-mates took to the track. There was also a lull in the Pro Cup times, doubtless as lapping traffic became more frequent, with the average lap time creeping up to around 2:01.
The MP Aston Martin was 11th overall at the end of the session, and driver Joe Osborne had some difficult setup decisions to make in the MP Motorsport garage. “We’re hitting the limiter a lot in sixth,” he told us. “We’ve brought the car in 2012 spec with longer gear ratios, but obviously that’s hitting our acceleration out of the slow corners, which is a tough choice to make. We’re a sitting duck in a straight line, as the V12 is really strangled by the Balance of Performance. The Ferraris are 12 to 14 kph quicker than us on the Mistral. We’re fast everywhere else – in fact we were fastest overall in the first sector at one point.”
Like several people we asked, Osborne wasn’t sure why the full Mistral was being used this year when the chicane had been used last year. The full straight is usually employed to allow passing in multi-class races such as the European Le Mans Series, and even the supporting Lamborghini Super Trofeo series is using the chicane this weekend. “I think they thought the gentlemen drivers would enjoy driving flat-out for longer,” he ventured. “But I think the Balance of Performance we have would have worked a lot better with the chicane layout. As it is, the BMWs are the only cars we can pass on the straight.”
Duncan Tappy in the #8 Bentley was reasonably satisfied with the team’s progress so far: “We had a few issues to work through this morning, including the pits-to-car radio not working, but we’re back on track now. We were quick in the BoP test here and we’re fairly quick down the straights, too.”
His co-driver D’Ambrosio also weighed in: “We’ve been trying different stuff, but the car is handling really well, we’re just doing some work to get more out of it. I’ve never driven the track in this configuration and it’s really nice,” he said. “It’s never ‘comfortable’ but the handling of this car, the base handling, is really good. We don’t have to make big revolutions from one track to another, which is great and helps us drivers a lot, especially perhaps me from my single-seater background. In F1 we know from our first test in January what our base car is like. In Frenc,h the phrase we use means ‘well-born’. There are always a few tweaks, but you know the car is good. The Bentley is the same, we have a good feeling with the car and it’s really good to drive.”
Andy Meyrick in the sister #7 car added: “This is the first track we’ve raced at where we’ve previously tested, so we’re just working on fine-tuning the balance. Whatever the others are saying, we’re definitely not the fastest in a straight line – that has to be the McLarens and Ferraris. We’re aiming to qualify in the top 10 – there’s a lot of opportunities for big shunts in the early laps around so we’re looking to stay out of trouble. It’s also a pretty abrasive track, so tyre management will be important.”
Kevin Korjus in the #99 McLaren was another man with tyre wear on his mind: “It’s a very demanding track for tyres and the drop-off after a quick lap is bigger than it was at Silverstone and Monza,” he explained. “I was on very old tyres in the first session, so it’s hard to say where we were overall there, but this track should be good for us and I have two great team-mates, so I’m confident.”
His co-driver Kevin Estre added: “I did the beginning of the session and the car was pretty good – we have worked on both the qualifying and race set-up, but we’re not using new tyres. We have done some long runs with the tyres to see about degradation. I think this track will be harder on the tyres than Monza and Silverstone, but we will have a set-up and a way of driving to look after them.”
While the #3 Audi has been flying today, the drivers of the #1 are less happy with things so far: “It’s not going very well – we’re missing some pace and balance,” lamented Laurens Vanthoor. “Last year wasn’t great for us here, either. Top speed has never been the Audi’s biggest strength, but we’ve got others. At the moment we’re struggling to find a set-up to get the tyres working.”
In the #333 Ferrari, Marco Seefried was regretting a decision to take a different direction with setup in the second session. “We were looking at the changes, because even though we’re quick in a straight line, we have to improve. The drop-off in performance after the first lap on new tyres is still too much. I’m giving plenty of time to my co-drivers – Rinat [Solikhov] knows this track pretty well, but Vadim [Kogay] has only been here once before. Seat time is important for him, because Paul Ricard is deceptive – it’s a lot trickier and more technical than it looks.”
At the end of the 90-minute session, Frezza in the #11 Kessel Ferrari was fastest overall and fastest Pro-Am, while the #85 HTP Mercedes was the fastest Pro car in fourth overall, behind the #93 Pro GT Porsche and #80 RJN Nissan.
SE & PS
