72nd Le Mans 24 Hours - Wednesday Qualifying - Session 2
Report (22.00-00.00)
The four Audis,
Lammers' Dome and the Dallara were the first group out. Herbert
pitted immediately, was pushed into his pit, but emerged two minutes
later. Meanwhile Kristensen, McNish and Lammers all improved immediately
the session began, for second, third and fourth, but Bourdais in
the (previously hobbled) 17 Pescarolo Courage then went fourth fastest.
Fun and games
began straight away in GTS too, with Ollie Gavin setting a 3:52.158
in the 64 Corvette. At 22.15, Johnny Herbert is
on a quick lap, and we await with interest a time popping up against
the 88 Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx R8.... but he aborted that lap,
leaving McNish to set a 3:34.683 for fastest time at 22.20.
Barbosa has
been in the Rollcentre Dallara, and set seventh best time: the car
was popoising badly, especially approaching Indianapolis, in the
first session, but the Portuguese is under 3:40.
At this point
(22.20) it is Audis 1-4, Judd-powered cars in 5-8 (Pescarolo, RfH,
Dallara, Pescarolo) and the Zytek in ninth.
Gounon has set
a 3:42.592 in the factory Courage AER, five and a half seconds quicker
than the RML Lola B160 (LMP1 car). Gounon is 15 (fifteen, one-five)
seconds faster than anyone else in the class... with Epsilon second
fastest.
Approaching
22.30, it's almost dark here, and the suspicion is that we have
seen the best times of the evening already.
As Bourdais
jnr. was flying along in the Pescarolo, his father was out setting
the Panoz GTP's first lap of the day.
"It's absolutely
perfect, exactly on plan, everything is wonderful," says Mike
Pickup, PK team owner, his car eleventh fastest after two hours
of track time. The car slipped to fifteenth by 22.30, but the Bergmeister
time (4:09) remains the quickest in GT.
Kaneishi pits
the 15 RfH Dome with a massive flat spot on the right front tyre,
which is changed.
Mike Hezemans
gets a Barron-Connor 575 down to 4:00.714, best time so far for
one of these 2004 cars here, but well over seven seconds slower
than Oliver Gavin. The battle of the 550s meanwhile is now headed
by the 66 car, Enge bettering Bouchut's earlier time in the Larbre
run Ferrari.
Tim Sugden is
having fun in the Perspective Porsche, climbing up the GT order
and trading lap times with a most unlikely adversary, the LMP1 Lola
Caterpillar. The Perspective car is now fifth in class, 33rd overall
with the Lola just behind.
Michael Caine
continues to impress in the 89 TVR, 4:16 the best time so far for
the car, now seventh in class.
Someone in the
timing booth clearly isn't paying attention as the message that
Bike no 78 is in the gravel at post 42 flashes
up - The 'bike' is actually Paul Daniels in the PK Sport Porsche
and Post 42 is the first Mulsanne chicane. Daniels escapes the gravel's
clutches pretty quickly.
Ah, duff message
on the screen: Daniels didn't go off at all.
Two of the cars
which hit trouble in session one are now setting times, the Panoz
popping up with a 4:06 in the hands of Bourdais the Elder, and Rick
Sutherland making steady progress in the LMP2 Intersport Lola. Sutherland
gets the car down to a 4:19 and then Clint Field set about the task,
an almost immediate 4:14 for the youngster is followed by a 4:12
and then a 4:08.
Graham Dale-Jones
IES Engines: "We're very happy. We haven't had a single problem
with the engine (of the Epsilon Courage) and all we've had to do
is change the battery. This is the 'bitsa' engine: I brought the
race engine out with me, and we've got about 460 hp."
Are you impressed
with the speed of the factory (AER engined) car? "Yes, but
their speed is about right with 500 hp. We've got 44mm restrictors
but the cams are set up for 41mm, so we're not making full use of
the larger (LMP2) restrictors. And Gounon's pretty good too isn't
he!"
Andy Wallace
( No. 22 Zytek): "We started out with too much rake on the
car which was causing porpoising. We raised the front end but initially
we were too high and weren't getting enough downforce. Now we're
taking the whole car down stage by stage and we're beginning to
find the speed."
The car's best
lap time so far is a 3:41, but the team is expecting cooler temperatures
and faster times tomorrow evening.
23.15: Justin
Wilson is out in the 16 Dome, about to set this car's second flying
lap time, after having the clutch changed, an operation that didn't
begin until the car returned to the pits (obviously!) soon after
21.00. Wilson laps quickly if not spectacularly before handing the
car over to Ralph Firman for the final ten minutes of the session.
His run was interrupted however with a lighting failure.
The last of
the really troubled cars, the Belmondo Courage (with the team's
principal at the wheel) leaves the pits for the first time in the
session at 23:25.
Jaime Melo splits
the Porsches at the head of the GT class field in the JMB Ferrari
360 almost at the same moment as Sascha Maassen puts the GT polesitting
Petersen 911 into the gravel at the Dunlop Curve.
Kevin McGarritty has been circulating more and more
quickly with the NASAMAX and as the clock ticks by 23:45 he improves
the car's first session time, but it remains in 14th position.
The 61 Barron
Connor Ferrari 575, Danny Sullivan at the wheel, has pulled off
the circuit at the Dunlop Curves with a minor fire. The engine failed.
The 77 Choroq
and 83 Seikel Porsches have improved in the closing minutes of the
session, up to sixth and seventh in the session.
At the very
end of the session John Field has improved the time and position
of the Intersport LMP1 Lola Judd, up to 17th overall in 3:52.862.
His son Clint,
after a trying first session, and a plucky run in session two explained:
"The throttle problem in the first session was a coil and spark
plug which had failed. They were replaced and the engine was fine."
Just before
midnight the car had a puncture and lost some or all of its second
tail of the day: There's only one left.
Ray Mallock
(at 23:30) "We've done all we wanted to do today so we've started
to take this engine out, in readiness to install the race engine
for tomorrow. We won't do much running on Thursday."
At 23:15, the
gorgeous red and white Lister was undergoing an engine change.
Overall, too
hot while the sun was up for the really quick times that we had
hoped for. Cooler tomorrow evening?
“We tried
to have a go at the start of the second session which is why we
were lined up with all the fast cars, but we had a gearbox connection
problem and had to pit and sort it out, by which time we came back
out into traffic and couldn’t match the time. Anyway, there
is plenty of work to be done to sort the cars for the race and it
is good to have both cars at the front. We’ll see what happens
tomorrow - maybe we’ll have another go at it then!”
Can you puzzle
out who that was (the clues are above - with thanks to Radio Le
Mans)?
Sascha Maassen
summed up a relatively uneventful evening of qualifying: "We
had the fastest time (in the Petersen / White Lightning Porsche)
so that is good, but the track is not quite there. I know that the
track will be better tomorrow and there will be faster times.”
Let's hope so.
We'd love to see Audis in the 3:32s, and Corvettes in the 3:48s
- with rivals close behind.
|