DSC starts coverage from the fourth round of the 2014 ELMS at Circuit Paul Ricard by paying tribute to Philippe Gurdjian, who sadly passed away at the end of last month. Gurdjian was influential in the renovation of the circuit, at the behest of Bernie Ecclestone in the last decade, making it the excellent facility that it is today.
Prior to this role he organised the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard from 1985-1990. Gurdjian was rewarded for his efforts with a French Order of Merit. He was 69.
A cloudless blue sky and gentle breeze welcomed the 37 competitors at Circuit Paul Ricard this morning. Conditions were absolutely perfect for the first 90-minute Free Practice session.
It was a mostly good clean session that saw all but one of the 37 entries undertake a good amount of mileage. The only one that hit significant problems was the #93 PRO GT by Almeras Porsche which stopped after 30mins with a water leak. In the final 30mins the #80 Kessel Racing Ferrari stopped briefly on the Mulsanne with a gear selection problem but eventually made it back of its accord.
Heading the times was the points leading Signatech Alpine-Nissan on a 1m50.117s, Nelson Panciatici setting the lap. At their home race, ‘les bleues’ is everywhere promoting the event and with an army of guests and partners arriving tomorrow they have started the weekend off in the best possible way. The fastest time was someway off last year’s pole time set by Jota Sport’s Oliver Turvey who registered a 1m48.403 but there is much more to come from the leading protagonists here for tomorrow morning’s all important grid setting session.
“I only really got one flying lap,” confirmed Panciatici. “The next few were full of traffic so not good. After a long break I thought it would take longer to get back to a good pace but I surprised myself! The car feels very good and there is a lot of confidence in the Signatech Alpine team this weekend.”
Second was the Thiriet by TDS Ligier-Nissan with the local team two-tenths back. Tristan Gommendy, Ludovic Badey and Pierre Thiriet all set close times and look to be in a very strong position going in to the weekend.
Christian Klien looked to be all set to claim top spot but got baulked on his fastest lap by an unidentified GTC Ferrari. The Austrian has set a purple sector one but had to ultimately settle for third place in his New Blood by Morand Morgan-Judd that he shares with Gary Hirsch and Pierre Ragues.
A very happy camp could be found down at Murphy Prototypes, as they finished the 90-minute session in fourth position. ‘Pipo’ Derani wasted no time and was immediately on the pace, impressing the team with seamless progress in his first ever LMP2 drive. Nathanaël Berthon set the car’s best time on a 1m50.771, before Rodolfo Gonzalez completed the running.
Luciano Bacheta set the 5th fastest time in the Greaves Motorsport Zytek-Nissan. The British racer, who made a very impressive LMP debut at Red Bull Ring in July, was involved in an incident with the Gulf Racing Aston Martin, driven by Roald Goethe, at the Le Beaussant right-hander, where contact was made.
“It was a miss understanding really,” said Bacheta. “The side of the car was damaged and a bit of the rear. It is a shame as it compromised our running but for me the session was all about getting used to the low downforce spec car. It is almost like a different car entirely compared to the Red Bull Ring version but I was getting familiar with everything pretty quickly.”
Down at Gulf Racing the team were flat out changing the V8 Vantage engine. It was unclear whether this was a consequence of the incident or not. Whatever, the team were not particularly forgiving of the #28 Zytek’s role in the incident that saw Goethe spin several times and suffer some minor bodywork damage. Despite this frustration the team were looking good on pace with Stuart Hall setting third best time in LMGTE with a 1m57.695s lap in the Aston.
The #41 Greaves entry saw Matt McMurry and Johnny Mowlem finish the session in 10th position after a relatively trouble free run. It was good to see Mowlem back in the fray, the reigning LMGTE champion getting fully bedded in for his return to the series and LMP2 competition.
Michel Frey continued to impress with some excellent lap in the Race Performance Oreca-Judd. The Swiss’ racers times were consistently rapid and he peaked with a 1m51.004s lap as he undertook the majority of the work in this first free practice session.
Jota Sport worked through their programme this morning and ended sixth fastest with Harry Tincknell setting a 1m51.537s. The Zytek-Nissan was reported to race control for an issue at T5, thought although not confirmed to be track limit orientated. Earlier in the session Filipe Albuquerque got familiar with Paul Ricard as remarkably this will be his first race event at the track.
The Sebastien Loeb Racing team were delighted to be back in the series and with two quick new pilots, in the shape of Arthur Pic and Andrea Roda, they have good reason to aim for another podium after their Imola result back in May. They finished 8th this morning with their Michelin shod Oreca-Nissan.
Roda topped and tailed the session getting familiar with his new mount and loving his experience so far, saying: “I have not had any running in the car so it was a big learning mission for me this morning. The car feels great and with the power steering initially feels like it will give good confidence. I have to adapt to lots of things and so does Arthur (Pic) but I am really enjoying being with the Sebastien Loeb Racing team so far.”
Points leaders, #55 AF Corse headed the LMGTE class, as Matt Griffin soon found the limits and set an early best of 1m57.323s. The ‘Thrapstonian’ (ye olde hamlet of Northamptonshire) led the way from title rivals, #72 SMP Racing, which in the hands of Andrea Bertolini will be one of the favourites for pole position tomorrow.
In the GTC class it was an SMP Racing 1-2-3 with the #71 Russian entry leading the way. Luca Persiani set a best of 1m59.140 with Kiril Ladygin just a few tenths away on pace, meaning that they look to be in with a good chance of repeating their Red Bull Ring success again this weekend.
In other news, AT Racing have just two drivers in their AF Corse run Ferrari 458 Italia this weekend. Alex Talkanitsa Jnr is absent as he is focused on important exams for the degree he is sitting at Sydney University. He will be back for the final round at Estoril.
The Sebastien Loeb Racing Audi R8 LMS that was initially entered remained in the team’s truck and will not participate at Paul Ricard this weekend.
This afternoon’s session begins at 15.00 cet.
Sam Smith
