Le Mans Test day, Sunday 24th April 2011

At last we have now some track action!! At 09:00hrs local time the free practice session got underway. It rained during the night so the condition of the track is difficult to judge but there are 54 cars due to go out.

The new fangled Oreca Swiss Hy Tech-Hybrid thingie has found the ultimate way of saving fuel (and tyre wear!) .. it fell apart as soon they turned the ignition key; so it has not yet left it’s pit garage .. not good in ‘Endurance Racing’ terms.

The balmy summer weather came to an end at about 10:30hrs local time when it rained somewhere out on the circuit and the bulk of the cars gave up and went back into their nice warm pit garages..

We Brits thrive on being ‘plucky’ but even so the Aston Martin works lads must be fed up. The problem was that the #009 Aston Martin Racing AMR One engine failed before it managed any laps, so we won’t be seeing it out today which is a major set back for the team.. It will be a long drive back to Banbury. On a more upbeat note the #007 car is up and running so the team will be able to gather some useful data for the main race.

Now it is time for lunch so everything grinds gently to a halt while the police all around Le Mans and the circuit have a bite to eat .. but now without a glass of wine to wash it down.. Whatever next!

Not sure what the morning proved really .. In LMP1 the Audis are running 1st 2nd and 3rd ahead of two of the Peugeots. The front runners are about 4 secs a lap slower than last year’s race-pace despite having lost nearly two litres of engine capacity. The #16 Pescarolo Judd is leading the petrol race and is running 8th and 9.7 secs behind the the Audis. So any attempts there have been to help the petrol cars catch up seemed to have failed.

LMP 2 was looking rather more competitive with the first five cars separated by six seconds. The current leader is the #41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek Nissan.
LMGTE Pro is currently led by the Hankook shod Ferrari 458 Italia . Andy Priaulx is doing well with the BMW M3 GT in 3rd just behind the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia.
LMGTE Am is led by the #50 Labre Competition Chevrolet C6-ZR1 which is ahead of one of the #52 AF Corse Ferrari 430. The Gulf AMR Middle East Aston Martin Vantage is 3rd.So, no big surprises!

Had to smile when the charming Marcel Fässler arrived back in the pits having spun the #2 Audi in quite a big way into a gravel trap at Mulsanne. This was the first ‘Spin with a Fin’ at Le Mans... when asked if the new fin had made a big difference he told us he had no idea.. everything happened so fast he couldn’t tell the difference. But he said that the car did miss the wall and will be fine for the afternoon session.

Oh dear ..The other Aston has just returned its engine to component form so now the whole team can load up and go home early.

Still no sign of the #5 Hybrid either .. that means they have saved even more fuel and maybe even the World by now.. But then with about two hours it came alive ...the Hybrid lives! After a couple of unsuccessful attempts to a) start and then b) get out of its pit garage it was up, up and away with a glowing green future ahead ... for a whole lap and then it went back into the pit garage! Well.. it was a start ! It went on do a couple more laps either with or without KERS running we are not sure. We heard later that the system was deployed briefly. So there were reasons to be cheerful?

It is easy to ignore the LM GTE classes with all the emphasis being placed on the Audi.v.Peugeot tussle. The early indications are that the ACO have got the ‘Pro’ category about right with three different marques in the top six places and around two seconds separating them! That can’t be bad.

So while we are sober what are our thoughts on the race? From today’s showing it is unusual that the Audis have been consistently quicker that the Peugeots. This is a bit of a surprise since Peugeot have tended to be alarmingly quick in the past. Even a traditional last ditch lap from Sarrazin couldn’t nail the leading #3 Audi, but it did get upto 3rd splitting the R18s.

Lets face it the petrol cars still don’t stand a chance .. the quickest one is the #16 Pescarolo and it is lying 8th . Judging by today’s performance it doesn’t look like the Hybrid will be much of a threat either!

In LMP2 the Nissan powered cars look to have the edge which is a bit strange after the HPD ( Honda) cars went so well last year. In 2010 plenty of LMP2 saw the chequered flag so reliability may not be quite such an issue as in some years.

LM GTE Pro.. Now this looks good! The new Ferrari 458 Italia looks like a serious racer with some rapid drivers. Reliability may now be a thing of the past for the Italians so they will be dangerous. This year BMW are taking this a bit seriously with their BMW M3 GT. They look good, they have a powerful set of drivers and they did win at Sebring. There are Porsches lurking in the middle order but the BMW and Ferrari do look a bit dangerous.

LM GTE Am .. this is all a bit murky really because we don’t know the driver line up and there are not all that many cars to choose from. The Chevrolet Corvette knows how to win at Le Mans but the Ferrari 430 is now a very well sorted package .. I think Ferrari will do it, purely because there are rather a lot of them..

So..Bring it on .. . see you in June ..