Tristan Gommendy’s 1m47.546 ensured that title protagonists Thiriet by TDS Racing headed the field in the second Free Practice session at Paul Ricard this afternoon. The time was quicker than of last years’ pole of 1m47.837s, set by Nathanael Berthon in the Murphy Oreca-Nissan.
On the face of it track conditions were similar to this morning’s session with sun and blue skies, but the strengthening mistral ensured that the approach and turn-in to the breath-taking Signes right hander was treacherous to say the least.
To give an appreciation, last years highest LMP2 speed trap figure in Free Practice was set by the Signatech Alpine at 286.5kph. This afternoon the Thiriet by TDS Oreca 05-Nissan flashed by at a mega mistral assisted 297.5kph!
“There is more grip on the track of course with the rubber down but jeez this crazy wind,” said Gommendy, with a dramatic gallic shrug. “The entry to Signes is quite tough because we are taking a lot more speed in there with the tail wind. You get too much understeer when you go in and then in the middle it grips with the car changing and all of a sudden you are wide, so it is tricky.”
“I had traffic on my quick one so I think five or six tenths quicker would be possible,” he continued. “Tyres wise we have tried both and in the medium this is a good peak of very good performance that you don’t have with the harder ones (medium-plus). There will be some questions for the race because we wear the left side so we are sure that is unlikely anyone can do a double stint with mediums on the left.”
It was a close session with just under a second covering the top six. 0.375s behind Gommendy was Olivier Pla in the Krohn Ligier-Judd. The works Nissan LMP1 driver is enjoying his second acquaintance with the Krohn Racing and set several quick laps in the Michelin-shod car.
Third was the JOTA Sport Gibson 015S-Nissan with Harry Tincknell again setting the fastest time of 1m48.271. Compared to last season the team had much improved straight-line speed, and Filip Albuquerque who set a personal best time of 1m47.762 before takin time out to tell DSC about why the true hierarchy will probably not be known until qualifying tomorrow morning.
“The BR01 cars looked fast this morning but they had new tyres on, so we can see now they are a little further away,” said the Portuguese ace. “We don’t know who has tried fresh tyres and low fuel yet so we will wait and see. I tell you what, it is much better this year on the straight against the GT cars, they don’t get so close at the end of the straight so they can now be passed much cleaner which makes it easier for everyone to have their own race.”
Eurasia Motorsport continued their impressive build-up to the 4 Hours of Le Castellet with fourth place in FP2. Shrugging off a starter motor issue in FP1, the Filipino entered team of Nico Pieter De Bruijn and reigning Le Mans LMP2 champion Richard Bradley both impressed with consistent stints and could prove to be a serious thorn in the side of the three title contenders tomorrow afternoon. Bradley claimed the best lap for the team in FP2 on a 1m48.380s.
Greaves Motorsport placed fifth with its Gibson 015S-Nissan, with Jon Lancaster setting a best of 1m48.477s. The rapid Yorkshireman shares the car once again with Bjorn Wirdheim and Gary Hirsch, who emerged intact from his trip to see race director Eduardo Freitas after an altercation with Phil Keen’s Gulf Porsche in FP1.
The brace AF Racing BR01-Nissan LMP2 cars ended the session seventh and ninth as the team focused more on exploring its new Dunlop rubber.
Team LNT again finished 1-2 in LMP3 with the No.2 Ginetta-Nissan leading the sister No.3 car. Michael Simpson’s 1m56.679s headed Charlie Robertson who stopped the clocks at 1m57.567s. The Villorba Corse only completed seven laps after gearbox problems.
LMGTE saw Alessandro Pier Guidi unleash his trademark Ferrari 458 Italia expertise with a succession of fast laps in the AT Racing entered car. The Italian peaked on a 1m55.256s lap to head the similar No.55 AF Corse 458 Italia of Matt Griffin, with the Irishman setting a time just over a tenth adrift.
Porsche and BMW were next up in LMGTE with the Proton Competition and BMW Team Marc VDS cars respectively. Richard Lietz, fresh from his excellent winning performance with Manthey in the WEC last weekend set a 1m56.684s best, while Andy Priaulx managed a 1m56.855 in the BMW Z4 he shares with Henry Hassid and Jesse Krohn.
Ferraris also led the way in GTC with the No.63 AF Corse car leading the sister No.62 car. Marco Cioci and Francesco Castellacci respectively set the times. The FP1 topping TDS BMW Z4 was third, but this time in the hands of Dino Lunardi which gave the team great confidence ahead of qualifying tomorrow.
The session did feature an early Full Course Yellow situation when a bollard became detached at Turn 5. As per session one several entries were warned and shown warning flags for track limit violations. The Murphy Prototypes Oreca-Nissan and the No.55 AF Corse Ferrari received hefty ten minute stop/go penalties for persistent abuses of the track limits. The Krohn Racing Ligier-Judd was also handed a penalty for speeding in the pitlane.
Qualifying for the penultimate round of the 2015 European Le Mans Series is scheduled to begin at 09.00 local time tomorrow morning, with the race set to start at 13.00cet.
Sam Smith
