After the first day of running at a sunny Paul Ricard, Reiter Engineering’s #88 Lamborghini Gallardo ended the day at the top of the timing screens after Dutch veteran Peter Kox set a time of 1:56.018 with the new car in the morning session. In comparison to last year’s quickest lap, set by M-Sport in the Bentley’s debut, Kox’s time was half a second quicker.
Kessel Racing’s #11 Ferrari of Michael Broniszewski and Michael Lyons ended up with the second fastest time, a second off the Lambo with a 1:57.088 (set in the afternoon session) and the Oman Racing Team Vantage finished the day third after lapping 1:57.178.
Both sessions were relatively quiet aside from the odd stoppage due to an incident, the most significant being the Rinaldi Ferrari, which had an off at the exit of the pit-lane at the start of the second session with Rinat Salikov behind the wheel.
‘He’s still getting used to it,’ Rinaldi driver Marco Seefried told DSC. ‘He just went off on cold tyres. The car has significant front-end damage, so we are done for the test and have already began packing up.’
The #6 Phoenix Audi and, late in the day the #88 Lamborghini Extenso also had minor offs, each sustaining damage and causing temporary red flag periods. Both cars are due to be back out tomorrow though.
Out of the teams who have come into the season with a different chassis, MRS GT Racing were the fastest. Even on their debut with their 2015 Nissan, after running a McLaren last year, it didn’t stop them getting straight up to speed, as they ended up with a respectable time 1:57.654, putting them seventh overall.
And in other Nissan related news, Bob Neville’s crew in the #23 GTR of Alex Buncombe and Wolfgang Reip ended the day fourth overall with a 1:57.399, that after topping the times in the BOP test with the new 2015 spec Nissan the day before.
Meanwhile the new McLaren also proved to be quick right out of the box. Being run by Von Ryan, and driven by an all-star cast of Bruno Senna, Kevin Estre and Alvaro Parente, the all-white 650S GT3 rounded off the top 5 with a time of 1:57.473.
The 2015 spec Audi also ran in the morning session, having elected to stay for the whole test after the BOP session. But it didn’t complete many laps nor set the world alight with Laurens Vanthoor driving. The brand new R8 managed 28th overall with a 1:58.767, though it’s hard to read anything into it, the time, like a large proportion of the rest of the field, looking slightly hampered by the apparently substantial quantity of sand in the luggage compartment!
Stephen Kilbey & Graham Goodwin
