On a drying track the final two hours of the Le Mans Test Day turned out to be very interesting indeed. Benoit Tréluyer started the final part of the day in first place and he had just improved to a 3:35.234 when Giancarlo Fisichella crashed his AF Corse Ferrari at the Mulsanne Corner, bringing out the red flags – the Italian walked away uninjured.
After the restart Tréluyer, Tom Kristensen and Stephane Sarrazin kept putting in fast laps and with one hour remaining Kristensen was already on 3:25.683. But then a second red flag, caused by Dominik Kraihamer crashing his Lotus at the Porsche Curves, meant everyone had to come into the pits again. Fortunately Kraihamer was ok, although the car was not.
With 39 minutes remaining the session was restarted once again. By that time Lucas di Grassi was in ninth place, 13 seconds down on Kristensen’s time. As the conditions improved Di Grassi was soon up into fourth place and with 25 minutes to go he put the #3 Audi on top with a 3:25.358. On his next flier he backed out in the final sector, but then Loïc Duval went out on a mission for redemption after his shunt at the end of the morning session.
On his final lap the French driver blasted through to a time of 3:22.583, beating last year’s pole position time and dealing a psychological blow to Toyota.
In LMP2 the Signatech Alpine team continued to lead the way. Panciatici was fastest, he improved once again with 12 minutes remaining, but right at the end it was Olivier Pla who went around even quicker. His 3:38.801 was enough to beat the two Alpine-Nissans. Earlier in the session Jacques Nicolet and Simon Dolan came together at Arnage, sending both cars off the track and causing damage to the Morgan and the Zytek.
Aston Martin beat Porsche in LM GTE Pro. Makowiecki and Dumbreck improved their lap times at the end, with the #97 beating the #99 by just a couple of tenths. The two works Porsches finished third and fourth. Aston Martin Racing also dominated GTE Am. Jamie Campbell-Walter, in the Vantage that had been damaged in the morning, beat the Danish Aston Martin. The day finished with five Astons in the GTE top 10.
MtC
