Murphy’s men and the chocolate mountain
A 1:49.088 for Brendon Hartley, delivered right on the chequered flag, saw Murphy Prototypes end day one 6/10ths of a second clear of the pack. The pleased Kiwi explained: “It wasn’t saved for the last lap, it’s just that I didn’t get a clear lap until then but I was lucky enough to get one at the end. We were a bit lost with the balance of the car this morning and we made some pretty dramatic changes into Free Practice 2 so it is good to get it to a place that it is pretty competitive, especially as we don’t seem to be throwing as many tyres at the car as other teams are. This track is quite hard on tyres so I think getting to be able to double-stint the tyres could be key, so I might have to think about making the tyres last and back off just a little bit.
“These cars love downforce to get a laptime and I don’t think the GT cars can run a great deal of downforce anyway so here the GT cars are actually a bit faster than us. In fact I was passed by a Ferrari today whilst flat out, which was a bit surprising!”
Thiriet by TDS were next up, then Jota Sport (Turvey “still not 100% happy with the balance but I think we can improve for tomorrow”) and Signatech Alpine only fourth.
The sector times seemed to be revealing that the Alpine and the Zytek were stronger on the long Mistral straight whereas the Orecas, particularly TDS’s and Murphy’s, are getting the advantage in the corners. The reality of the second sector was rather odd however as Brendon Hartley went on to explain (having just clinched the fastest first and third sectors of the day a couple of laps after doing the same with the second sector): “If you see a purple sector in sector two all it means is that you have followed a Ferrari onto the straight because they will tow you right up it, but then they slow you down in sector 3, so you’ll never get a fastest sector two followed by a fastest sector 3!”
Matt Griffin confirmed that the GTE cars were hitting similar top speeds to those they achieve at Le Mans – “we are doing over 180mph here and the straight suits the Ferraris more than the Porsches. The car is very aerodynamically efficient so whilst the Porsche is better in the twisty stuff I think we do have an advantage overall here. Qualifying will still be tough though, because we have Andrea {Bertolini] and Marco Cioci will be out for a pole too. I’m really happy with today, JMW were quicker than us this morning but they had new tyres to do that, we are genuinely looking really strong for the race.”
It seems possible given the tales of GT cars disappearing ahead on the straights that the LMP2 cars really need more power before taking significant wing off to gain an advantage in sector two will yield enough of a benefit, rather than simply compromising the twisty sectors one and particularly three. The GTC teams were finding it similar, taking the wing completely flat on the BMW only yielded an extra 3km/h by the end of the Mistral but made the car very edgy in the quicker bends according to Phil Quaife.
All three Boutsen Ginion drivers were showing good pace, Alex Kapadia in particular impressing with a 1:50.333, third quickest at the time it was set. Both Swift and Kuppens were also into the mid-1:52’s despite no real experience in this kind of car. Kapadia: “The time was OK but the lap was a bit scrappy to be honest. There is definitely more time there, lots of potential so I’m really looking forward to qualifying. It was nice to be third for much of the session and my teammates were into the 52’s so we are looking strong. The big problem is that with three drivers we are only having six laps at a time. Just as you are starting to learn the aero and the tyres and find the pace, you have to pit and hand it over so that is holding us back.”
James Swift: “[Although I have driven Radicals a lot] this is a pretty new experience as there is just so much aero and in some ways the car feels faster than you are, but it is fun, really good fun. I’ve only done one race this year and although I have been here [at Paul Ricard] before, to go faster than you have ever been before and still be only a couple of seconds off is alright isn’t it?” It certainly is, and this should be Boutsen Ginion’s best chance of a good race this season after the disappointment of Austria in particular.
Morand Racing missed almost half of the session after the car stopped with a fuel sensor issue and had to be pulled behind the barriers at turn nine. Losing quarter of the available practice time is bound to have repercussions, especially as Christian Klien was unable to validate the changes made since the morning session: “Hungary was very tricky but we made mistakes about timing in qualifying and tyres in the race and dropped too far back. Once I was on slicks the car and the pace was good. Here [at Paul Ricard, with dry and consistent conditions] it is much better and already this morning the car was very good in the ten laps I did. I was setting the fastest laptimes when I was in the car and I was very happy with it. We were missing some speed on the straights, so we took some aero off for sector two and it seemed a bit better but I didn’t get to try it [in Free Practice 2] because of the fuel problem. I wanted to do some qualifying practice runs at the end of Free Practice 2 but now I will have to go straight into it. I am happy with the car’s balance and know the track very well so we will be fine.
“Having a bit less aero could be useful for passing the traffic or not getting passed so easily, but it will also affect the car, especially in sector three and will increase the tyre wear, which is already high around here. I think to get the pure best qualifying time, you would run a good amount of aero but it is not a simple decision for the race.
LMPC saw Ayari beat the sister car by 1.4 seconds but Hirsch explained “He was practising qualifying runs with new tyres and low fuel but we were just getting in a good place to have a good car for the race and the car is better than this morning so we are feeling confident.”
Hirsch was then seen struggling under the weight of the most enormous chocolate bar this writer has ever seen
(and indeed now tasted).
And it wasn’t the only sign of triangular swiss chocolate in the paddock, given the racy looking rodent hanging from the Morand Racing awning – could this be a sign that Toblerone is coming back to racing…?
In GTE the quickest two of this morning were reversed, Ram Racing’s Matt Griffin taking the fastest time in class for #52 with a 1:56.847 ahead of Bertolini for JMW, then Tandy for Proton nearly a second further back and Gunnar Jeannette a fine fourth in the sister #53 Ram Racing car.
GTC saw the Ecurie Ecosse BMW, which doesn’t have a great top speed (relatively of course!) unable to match the pace of the main contenders, despite having Phil Quaife and Ollie Millroy on duty. Quaife was happy enough though:
“I haven’t raced since the Dubai 24 hours where I drove the Lapidus McLaren so this is a great opportunity for me. I’m here to try to help Ecurie Ecosse to win the team’s championship and, I know it’s a long shot, but to try to help Ollie Millroy win the drivers’ too. I didn’t get much running this morning but I was able to learn the car, which I did pretty quickly and we were able to try some different aero approaches and we knew which way to go with that so we were better in Free Practice 2. We are fine in terms of set-up and the car will perform in the race. It is very consistent and reliable and we have a good driver line-up. The team have shown that they can deliver podiums and they are great at calling the strategy. I’m hopeful that we can perform well in qualifying and I’m really looking forward to the race.”
#69 headed #62 in GTC throughout and overall and the #60 Lamborghini was competitive again, ending the day third quickest. Kox explained the presence of the second car in their impressive paddock set-up. “It is actually Nico Pronk’s old car which we have just updated to 2013 spec so it is a full Reiter car now. We’ve brought it as a rolling spares package because Reiter’s commitments are spread three ways right now, at Navarra for the FIA GT and at the ADAC, so this was the easiest way of juggling the parts! Of course we have two complete cars within Kox Racing now and we have the capacity to run them both so it makes a great deal of sense if the customers are there for 2014 to run two cars, it is certainly more cost-effective.”
With a fine and settled forecast for qualifying and the race it isn’t possible to pick a winner yet, tomorrow is set to be a good one, especially if the chocolate keeps coming.
PS
