Cool and cloudy conditions greeted the 62-car Blancpain Endurance Series field at Silverstone for Saturday morning’s Bronze Test and 90-minute Free Practice sessions.
Vincent Abril went fastest in the Bronze Test for HTP Bentley ahead of the two BMW Team Brasil Z4s. Abril and the Brazilians Matheus Stumpf (#77) and Felipe Fraga (#0) were among a number of drivers ranked higher than Bronze with no previous experience of Silverstone who were allowed out in the session to familiarise themselves with the circuit ahead of the later sessions.
ROWE Racing Mercedes’ young single-seater graduate Indy Dontje was a similar case, and went fourth-fastest in the session ahead of the first actual Bronze-rated driver – Black Falcon Mercedes’ young American Sean Johnston.
Free Practice saw two of the WRT Audis come to the fore – the #3 of Frank Stippler and Stephane Richelmi just edging out Monza victors Vanthoor, Vernay and Frijns in the #1 by almost two-tenths to top the timesheets with a 2:01.990 by the time the chequered flag fell.
Quickest non-Audi laps was the 2:02.311 set by the Pro Am-class TDS BMW of Franck Perera (who was on pole position here last year in a Porsche). He was just ahead of Pierre Kaffer, who set the quickest Ferrari time of 2:02.427 in the #66 Rinaldi Racing 458.
WRT Audi team boss Pierre Dieudonne reckons Balance of Performance is a much less contentious issue in GT3 racing than it was two or three years ago, but it still attracts comment every round, with the Ferraris getting extra weight and a 7mm increase in ride height and some extra weight here after their strong showing at Monza.
And speaking of Ferraris, there was a late addition to the entry list in the form of a second Sport Garage entry – an Am Cup car for Christophe Hamon, Tony Samon and Luc Paillard to join the team’s Pro Am car for Gilles Vannelet, Enzo Guibbert and Arno Santamato. Elsewhere, Claudia Huertgen was confirmed as the third driver in the one-off Schubert BMW entry alongside Max Sandritter and Dominik Baumann.
Schubert team manager Timo Frings told us that the entry was a one-off for now, with the squad’s main focus being ADAC GT Masters, but it is exploring the possibility of entering this year’s Spa 24 if sufficient budget can be found.
British teams always look forward to taking on the familiar surroundings of Silverstone, and the Aston Martin contingent is no different. Pro drivers Daniel Lloyd and Jonathan Adam have joined Ahmad Al-Harthy at the Motorbase-run Oman Racing Team for this season and Adam (fresh off his 24-hour race win here for Beechdean) reckons this could be the team’s best chance of a strong result all year. “We’ve been given a little bit more weight compared to Monza, but this track suits the car much better and all three of us know the place really well, so we should be strong.”
Bentley has also been pegged back slightly for this round. “We have more weight and less boost,” Guy Smith told us, “but I’m not really sure why – although we got a decent result in Monza, we weren’t actually that quick around there. But we’ll see – it’s nice to be back at the site of our first win anyway!”
There are no new-generation Audi R8s at Silverstone, with both Phoenix and WRT reverting to the old-spec car for this round. Many of WRT’s personnel were sporting shaved heads as a result of their Nurburgring 24 victory a week ago, but Laurens Vanthoor confirmed that it’s now back to business as usual at the Belgian squad.
“It’s been a busy few weeks and the win last weekend hasn’t really sunk in yet,” he said. “As a team everyone’s obviously very proud, but we started preparing for this race almost straight after the N24 and with days of testing during the week, it’s only when I sat at home at looked at pictures that I truly realised I’d won it.
“The Nurburgring 24 is the hardest GT race in the world and it was very high on my bucket list to win, especially after having a few crashes there in the past. This weekend, we’re tired but totally focused. We want to win here, we think we have the car to do it and we hope to add to our championship chances.”
Sainteloc Racing is also present with two Am Cup entries and a Pro Cup car, Marc Basseng stepping in for Edoardo Mortara alongside Edward Sandstrom and Gregory Guilvert. Basseng was also at the Nurburgring but luck was not on the side of the #4 Phoenix car he was driving there. “We had a problem with a small wire in the engine that took two hours to diagnose,” he explained, “and then Mike [Rockenfeller] spun on some oil. He didn’t hit anything but just as we was about to get going, two more cars hit him and it was over.”
The new Audi R8 has raised quite a few eyebrows with its extensive aerodynamics, looking from some angles like a half-way house between a GT and a prototype and perhaps not sitting entirely within the original spirit of the GT3 regulations. “Yes, it is very aero-dependent,” agreed Basseng, “but it’s within the window of aero loads and top speeds specified by the FIA for GT3. The more aero a car has, the easier it is to drive anyway, but you do have to push it quite hard to get it to work properly. The wing looks big, but really most of the downforce is generated by the fully working undertray, which is what everybody is doing now anyway.
“For me the problem is more traction control and ABS, it cuts the gap between the pro drivers and the wealthy amateurs to almost nothing. I think road cars are so advanced now, we’re past the point of technology transfer, the GT3s should just be tools for good racing, so they should have fewer driver aids.”
The McLarens had a very difficult time of it in Monza and among those hoping they’ll go better here at Silverstone is Nicolas Lapierre. The Frenchman, who’s turning out for KCMG in the WEC LMP2 class this year, drove for ART McLaren at Paul Ricard and the Spa 24 Hours last year, and this weekend is deputising for Bruno Senna, who’s taking part in the Berlin Formula E race. Lapierre told us he hopes to make at least one more Von Ryan McLaren experience this year.
SE & SK
