The second free practice session held at Paul Ricard this afternoon saw quicker times throughout the field as the temperature soared to 26 degrees and the drivers found further, enhanced grip levels.
Before it began however, there was plenty kicking off from the stewards after FP1, with two teams penalised. Jota Sport saw all of Harry Tincknell’s times deleted after he was deemed not to have respected track limits. The decision was taken after a warning, subsequent to information told to all drivers at the briefing this morning, upon re-joining the track between T3 and T5. It seemed particularly harsh on Tincknell who appeared to use good old fashioned common sense to re-join at a less oblique angle. But having improved the sector time in so doing, the rule was applied and the penalty dished up.
A much more far-reaching penalty was handed out to Pegasus Racing who will serve a stop/go two-minute penalty in the first two hours of the race. This was because of a technical infringement related to missing engine seals.
Paul Ricard is not all bout straight-line speed, but it was the major talking point in the paddock before and after FP1, particularly the speed of the Ferraris and also the discrepancy between the LMP2 runners.
Interestingly one leading LMP driver discounted the perception that the Ligier LMP2 coupe has any straight-line speed advantage.
“It’s a myth really. There is no discernible difference. In fact on a long straight you get a much better tow from an open top car. The speed trap figures don’t lie.”
And so they don’t. In the FP1 session the fastest through the speed trap was Francesco Castellacci the GTC classed AF Corse Ferrari! He triggered the beam at 288kph! The topic of the Ferrari’s straight-line speed advantage has been a hot one all year. Here it is stark and visibly noticeable.
The Ligier LMP2 was registered at 279.8kph and the fastest LMP was the Signatech Alpine-Nissan on 286.5, some 3.8kph faster than the next best LMP2, that of Sebastien Loeb Racing’s Oreca-Nissan.
It was incapsulated in one moment of clatiry on the monitors when Ludovic Badey, latched on to an SMP Ferrari 458’s as they joined the Mistral. By the end of it, one kilometre later, he was in exactly the same position despite several ‘duck-outs’ to get by. He couldn’t.
Again the data heralded the facts. Seven of the top ten fastest through the speed trap were Ferrari’s. The only LMP2 cars were Signatech (5th) and Race Performance (10th).
The 90-minute session this afternoon turned in to that most unlikely of free practice scenarios, a real battle at the front of the field with the top six being covered by just half a second! Tomorrow’s qualifying and race is set to be mouth-watering prospects.
Setting a time of 1m49.473 relatively early in the session was Christian Klien in the New Blood by Morand Morgan-Judd. The Austrian happy to banish the nightmare of his home race at Red Bull Ring in July.
“FP1 was tough for us as we really struggled on the medium tyre,” confirmed Klien. “The good thing for us in FP2 is that my time was set not on low tanks or on quali (engine) map. So we know we can take time of that. But you can see how close it is here. It will all come down to traffic and the tyres in the race for sure.”
Klien also went on to describe the track conditions as pretty poor with lots of debris on the track. Further investigation by DSC revealed that the kerbs recently underwent some treatment and painting. Some of the course material that is used atop the kerb appears to have made its way on to the track and many of the drivers reported the medium compound Dunlop tyres suffering as a consequence.
“I am sure that some will attempt to qualify on medium compound tyres,” said the Austrian. “But there is no way you will get a second stint from them here. The harder tyres are normally approx. 0.7s slower but for the race they will probably be the ones to start on.”
The turquoise Swiss entered Morgan sat atop the timing screens until the chequered flag, but behind it there was a frenetic end to the running as five other protagonists swapped positions over and over again.
Harry Tincknell once again should his class by placing P2, just 0.004s behind Klien. The Jota Sport team had been, for once, relatively in the shadows until Tincknell got in the Zytek cockpit. Running a pre-determined programme the team focused on giving Filipe Alburquerque and Simon Dolan the bulk of the track time until the final stages of the session.
Third place was the Ligier-Nissan with Tristan Gommendy setting a best just over a tenth of a second away from the top two. Gommendy and team mate, Ludovic Badey rued some traffic ‘situations’ and also the inability of the LMP2 cars in general to take the GT cars down the Mistral.
Fourth place were reigning champs – Signatech-Alpine, with Nelson Panciatici once again setting the best lap. Oli Webb and Paul-Loup Chatin too look consistently fast here at Ricard. They will be a formidable force in tomorrow afternoon’s four hour race.
Fifth quickest was NathanaëlBerthon in the Murphy Prototypes Oreca-Nissan. The Frenchman just 0.301s away from the top time. There were a succession of quick runs from Berthon, but more encouraging for the team was the pace of Gonzalez and new boy Derani too. It was a very productive day for the Dubliners. In Berthon, they have a real chance of grabbing pole tomorrow morning.
“We had a really good day. The car feels very good, especially on the long run we did which is encouraging for tomorrow,” said Berthon. “I did a good time (1m48.342s) in the test here in April, so there is more to come for qualifying. The new aero-kit we got from ORECA makes a pretty big difference for us since April, so we are all quite confident for tomorrow.”
In the LMGTE class the #55 AF Corse (Cameron/Griffin and Rugolo) sat atop the times for most of the session but was demoted to fifth by the end of it after a succession of improvements by the chasing pack. Leading the class was the familiar face of Andrea Bertolini, the brilliant Italian again showing that he has tenths in hand by peaking with a 1m55.913s in the #72 SMP Ferrari 458 Italia.
“Andrea is a class act, everyone knows that,” said his engineer in the #72 SMP Racing Ferrari, Steve Bunkhall. “But Viktor often gets overlooked you know. He does a lot of the hard work, especially in those tough middle stints of the races. His confidence is increasing all the time and he and Sergey (Zlobin) work very well with Andrea. It was a good day again today.”
Marco Cioci claimed second place in the #54 AF Corse Ferrari. The Italian left it late however but couldn’t get within seven tenths of Bertolini. Michael Lyons, who shares with Cioci and Piergiuseppe Perrazini is targeting a podium in tomorrow’s race before he flies off to Singapore to drive a Hesketh at the Grand Prix. Tough life!
Giacomo Piccini gave Kessel Racing a boost by setting third fastest time, the Italian believing that there was more time to come for qualifying tomorrow after running wide on what would ultimately have been a faster lap.
In the GTC class the SMP Racing monopoly from this morning was broken as Prospeed ran out leaders after a scintillating lap from Mike Parisy. The genial Pau born racer set a 1m58.452 lap in the Porsche GT3 R to lead Luca Persiani’s #71 SMP Ferrari by just two-tenths of a second.
The Team Russia by Barwell camp were satisfied with their days work as Timur Sardarov got plenty of laps in the BMW Z4. Jonny Cocker and Leo Machitski worked through their programme and the Z4 looked reasonably planted on the tight final sector. The Anglo/Russian team ended the session 7th in GTC class.
Entry that had problems in FP2 included the #60 Formula Racing Ferrari which suffered an unspecified technical malady.
Sadly the Gulf Racing Aston Martin didn’t take part in the session after being forced to change an engine between the sessions.
Qualifying tomorrow morning begins with LMGTE and GTC at 09.00cet followed by LMP2 at 0.930cet. The four hour race will begin at 13.00cet.
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Sam Smith
