Ferrari 458s locked out the top four positions in free practice for Sunday’s Blancpain Endurance Series race at Monza. German team Rinaldi racing had its two cars first and second courtesy of the efforts of Norbert Siedler and Pierre Kaffer respectively, while third quickest was the #41 Sport Garage car of Vannelet, Guibert and Santamato. Another French Ferrari squad, ASP, came in fourth. All of the top four were Pro-Am entries.
Quickest non-Ferrari runner (and quickest Pro Cup entry) was the #1 WRT Audi of Vanthoor, Frijns and Vernay. The session stopped a few minutes earlier than planned when the #0 Team Brasil BMW Z4 became stuck in the gravel and couldn’t be retrieved before the clock ran down, but as with the morning’s Bronze Test, there were no serious incidents.
During the session we grabbed a quick word with young German GT Academy graduate Marc Gassner, who’s making his major race debut here at Monza in the #22 Nissan as he wasn’t in the GT-R that raced in January’s Dubai 24 Hours. “So far it’s going well – I had test day at Silverstone and I wasn’t too far off the other guys,” he said. Over in the #23, Wolfgang Reip joins Alex Buncombe and Bathurst hero Katsumasa Chiyo for Nissan’s first assault on the Blancpain Endurance Series’ top Pro Cup category. There have been some tweaks to the GT-R for 2015, but as Reip told us “we’ve had our boost turned down a bit compared to last year. We’ve typically gone well at high-speed tracks like Monza and Paul Ricard, so we’ll see what happens – the chassis is definitely improved, though.”
Also here in a Nissan – albeit the JRM-supported Molitor Racing entry – is 2013 WEC LMP2 champion and IndyCar driver Martin Plowman, sharing with JRM development driver Craig Dolby and single-seater convert Sean Walkinshaw. “The pre-season test at Paul Ricard was my first time in a GT car,” he said, “so I’m learning lots from my team-mates – Craig in particular. This really seems like something I’m going to enjoy, though.”
The WRT garage was a hive of activity as the team and Audi engineers put the brand-new (and it has to be said stunning-looking) second-generation R8 GT3 through its paces. Works driver Frank Stippler was on hand to give his verdict. “This is all about finding speed and reliability,” he told us. “There’s a lot of new parts compared to the old car and the old car has been very finely tuned over the years. We were have some balance issues at other tracks and they’re still present here – but if we can work through them this weekend, it’ll be a step forward.”
The other new-for-2015 car present at Monza is the McLaren 650S (although it did make its race debut at the Gulf 12 Hours just before Christmas). Von Ryan and Attempto Racing have two cars apiece, with the McLaren works drivers on duty for Von Ryan. Rob Bell echoed Attempto driver Miguel Ramos’ concerns about the Balance of Performance applied to the car. “I’m not sure what’s happening with the BoP, we’re nowhere at the moment,” he stated. “I come out of a corner next to one of the Nissans and it just shoots away initially. It’s a pretty draggy car, so they don’t get too far ahead, but it’s tough to close enough in the next braking zone.”
At Bentley, it’s as you were in the #7 Continental GT3, with Smith, Kane and Meyrick back for another year, but all change in the #8, which is now crewed by Soucek, Soulet and former HTP Mercedes man Max Buhk, who’s settling in nicely as Bentley Boy. “It’s just like before, really,” he smiled. “We’re getting there with the setup – we made a few changes and we know what direction to go in now.” Meyrick seemed confident as he suited up for his laps at the wheel. “It should be a good – we obviously know an awful lot more than we did this time last year, but the competition is a lot stronger, too. Qualifying was definitely our weakness, so we’re making sure to work on that.”
Finally, Marcus Mahy is in the paddock today as a guest of Kessel Racing – looking 100% fit and healthy following a remarkable recovery from his horrific Spa 24 Hours crash last year.
This evening’s pre-qualifying session is the final part of Blancpain Endurance track action today, with qualifying and the three-hour race at 9am and 2:30pm local time respectively on Sunday.
Stephen Errity
Images: Dan Bathie
