Saturday’s on-track action for the Blancpain Endurance Series Monza concluded with an evening pre-qualifying session. The Ferraris again looked strong here, with Pierre Kaffer in the #66 Rinaldi Racing machine leading home the #52 AF Corse car of Adrien de Leener and Cedric Sbirazzuouli at the top of the timesheets. Next up was Wolfgang Reip in the #23 Nissan GT-R, ahead of another Ferrari – the #11 Kessel 458 driven by Michal Broniszewski.
There was another strong showing from the #1 WRT Audi: the car of Vernay, Frijns and Vanthoor wound up fifth overall. A red flag after the spinning #50 AF Corse Ferrari dragged some debris and gravel onto the track with 57 minutes to go, and a full-course yellow later in the session for further debris at T1, were the only interruptions to the running, which has been impressively clean so far at Monza.
Over at Triple Eight BMW, Joe Osborne reported that the team were doing some worn-tyre running, but echoed the frustration of the other drivers at how fast the Ferraris are. “It’s such a Ferrari track!” he said. “They pull six car lengths on you on the straights, then you’re all over them in the next braking zone, but then they just pull away again.”
Yelmer Buurman is with Black Falcon Mercedes again this season, sharing a Pro Cup entry with Hubert Haupt and Abdulaziz Al-Faisal. “We’re struggling a bit with the balance so we’re having to work on setup,” said the Dutchman. “We’re hurting a bit not being able to do the Bronze Test as we’re in Pro.”
Alexey Karachev, meanwhile, filled us in a bit on the background to the relatively young GT Russian Team, which this weekend is calling on the considerable talents of Bernd Schneider and Marko Asmer as the Pro drivers in each car. “I raced for many years in Russia, but when the economic situation went bad in 2008, I had to go back to just karting,” he explained. “So now things have got better, we were able to sign with Viatti [a Russian tyre company] and to expand the team to two cars, running in both Sprint and Endurance.”
He continued: “We have eight Russian drivers here today, more in the support series and Russian companies are getting involved in motorsport more and more – they’re keen to use it for marketing.” The team has brought an extensive film crew with them to the track to make promotional films for its sponsors. Karachev added that while Asmer will alternate with Christophe Bouchut in the #71 depending on their schedules, the presence of Schneider at future rounds isn’t guaranteed due to his packed AMG schedule.
Also running a pair of Mercedes SLS here is ROWE Racing – more commonly seen in VLN and at the Nurburgring 24 Hours – with American Le Mans veteran Klaus Graf forming a key part of an impressive line-up. “We’re learning a lot,” he stated. “About the Pirelli tyres, about the schedule, just little things about how everything works here. I’ve done the Nurburgring 24 Hours the last three years with these guys and we did the Spa 24 Hours two years ago, ran well, but hit problems, so I’m keen to get back. That and Paul Ricard will be the big focus for us – here it’s about staying clean and bringing home some points.”
Finally, at Von Ryan McLaren, Kevin Estre echoed the mood of his colleague Rob Bell. “The BoP needs to better, we need to be better, everything needs to be better,” he stated simply. Along with Bell, he’s sharing the #58 car with Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen – a man far more used to V8 Supercars and with only a few GT3 races under his belt. “He improved a lot between the first and second sessions today,” said the Frenchman. “It’s his first time back with ABS and aero for a while, so he needs to build up to it.” For his part, Estre is one of the busiest men in motor racing right now, taking to a grid somewhere in the world every single weekend between now and July 10. Any risk of burning out? “Eh, I sleep on the plane!” he grins.
Stephen Errity
Images: Dan Bathie
