Jeroen Bleekemolen may be new to both the Nogaro circuit and the Grasser Racing Lamborghini Gallardo he’s driving this weekend, but the rest of the Blancpain Sprint Series field had no answer for the Dutchman in Saturday morning’s free practice. He set his time of 1:25.663 early, on his seventh lap out of the pits, and the benchmark stood for the remainder of the 80-minute session.
“I’m settling in nicely – I just had time to half a day’s testing with the team before coming here,” Bleekemolen told us. “We’re making good steps in each practice. I did a run on old tyres and the car felt really good, then I went out on a new set and as you can see we were quick! Everyone says this is an Audi track, but I think we’ll be able to compete.”
Friday’s first free practice had ended in a 1-2 for the WRT Audis of Cesar Ramos/Laurens Vanthoor and Enzo Ide/Rene Rast. The Belgian squad were the team to beat at this track last year and all indications point to them being strong contenders again. Saturday morning’s session saw Vanthoor in the #1 car go second-fastest, just under two-tenths slower than Bleekemolen, while Rene Rast was third in the #2 Audi.
WRT is also running the G-Drive-sponsored car of Gregory Guilvert/Stephane Ortelli, and the latter is in confident mood after his Blancpain Endurance Series podium at Monza last weekend with Sainteloc. “It’s always great to race at home,” he said, “and Gregory has gone well in an Audi here for the last four or five years in French GT, so we’re definitely looking good.” Ortelli and Guilvert went sixth-fastest in this morning’s session, ahead of the HTP Mercedes duo of Max Buhx and Max Gotz.
Markus Winkelhock put the #6 Phoenix Audi fourth in today’s session, just ahead of the fastest BMW, driven by Nelson Piquet Jr. “Just figuring it all right now,” the Brazilian said during the session. “The car is okay on new tyres, but not so good on old ones. We’ve lots of downforce but not as much power as the Audis, so we’re between a half and three-quarters of a second slower most of the time.” Piquet’s focus for this season remains in the United States, and he plans to contest only selected GT rounds in the Z4.
ROAL Motorsport’s Alex Zanardi was another less-than-satisfied BMW pilot, winding up 17th quickest this time out. “We’re struggling to find a setup that gives us enough grip,” he reported, “but I think we should be able to improve. Some top-10 race finishes would be nice.”
The two Fortec Mercedes were also finding their feet, ending the session 16th and 20th respectively. “We’re still trying to find pace on old and new tyres,” said Armaan Ebrahim, who’s switched to the SLS this year after contesting selected rounds in a BMW Z4 last season. “We’re also playing catch-up a bit, as we had a gearbox failure in yesterday’s practice, which robbed us of some track time. The Merc is very different to the BMW definitely, but it’s nice to drive. I’m enjoying it, but we just need to find the right balance.”
Ebrahim and his co-driver Benji Hetherington are one of just four entries in the Blancpain Sprint Series ‘Silver Cup’ this weekend, along with the other Fortec car of Bastian/Toril, the WRT Audi of Lisowski/Abril and the ROAL BMW of Fumanelli and Colombo.Meanwhile, the Pro-Am Cup has attracted just a single eligible driver line-up for this round – the Reiter Engineering Lamborghini of Peter Kox and Mark Hayek.
Finally, Porsche Carrera Cup GB graduate Daniel Lloyd is making his GT3 racing debut this weekend for the Italian Bhai Tech McLaren team. “It’s a big learning curve,” he admitted. “For example, it’s my first time racing a series that uses tyre warmers, so I really have to work on making the most of the tyres straight out of the box. We struggled yesterday, but made some changes overnight, and the car feels a lot better today.” Lloyd will also be making two Blancpain Endurance Series appearances for Aston Martin Racing this season (at Silverstone and the Spa 24 Hours), and has his first test in the team’s works GT3 car on the 25th of this month.
Stephen Errity
