Le Mans Series

LMS Paul Ricard Test Days – First session results

© Planetlemans – Marcel ten Caat // Audi R10 at Paul Ricard HTTT

The first official test session of the Le Mans Series got underway under clear blue skies and a temperature around 19. As the sun started to heat up the track the first engines were started and when the clock showed 9:00 the cars rolled out of the pit lane to kickstart their season.

Several teams have new liveries on their cars, while some others have no livery as of yet. So a lot of black and white cars today. During the session the red flag came out after a few incidents but there were no serious damages to most cars (apart from the Trading Performance Zytek).

As expected it was an Audi that ended the day on top, but it was only four tenths of a second quicker than the Pescarolo nr 16. Despite it being the first session of the two days the fastest lap by the nr 1 Audi was already seven tenths of a second quicker than last year’s fastest time set by Peugeot.

Quickest in LMP2 was the Porsche RS Spyder of Van Merksteijn Motorsport, the team clocked the fourth fastest time overall, just under two seconds behind the Audi.

In the GT1 category the Luc Alphand Corvette C6.Rs were almost identical in times. While the nr 72 car clocked a 1:55.073 the sister car stopped the clocks at 1:55.105. Both cars completed 35 timed laps.

Porsche was fastest in the GT2 class. The nr 76 Porsche 997 GT3 RSR of IMSA Performance Matmut was quickest in a time of 1:59.410, just under a tenth of a second quicker than the Team Felbermayr Proton Porsche.

Here is the complete result of the first timed session of the day.

1 Audi Sport Team Joest – 1:43.002 – 15 laps
16 Pescarolo Sport – 1:43.473 – 40 laps
2 Audi Sport Team Joest – 1:43.688 – 21 laps
34 Van Merksteijn Motorsport – 1:44.956 – 56 laps
10 Charouz Racing System – 1:45.456 – 13 laps
18 Rollcentre Racing – 1:45.993 – 41 laps
4 Saulnier Racing – 1:46.070 – 49 laps
12 Charouz Racing System-Cytosport – 1:46.463 – 36 laps
40 Quifel-ASM Team – 1:46.733 – 37 laps
25 RML – 1:47.238 – 28 laps
6 Team Oreca Matmut – 1:47.549 – 41 laps
19 Chamberlain-Synergy – 1:48.015 – 34 laps
26 Team Bruichladdich Radical – 1:48.611 – 38 laps
31 Team Essex – 1:48.985 – 9 laps
72 Luc Alphand Aventures – 1:55.073 – 35 laps
73 Luc Alphand Aventures – 1:55.105 – 35 laps
007 – Aston Martin Racing – 1:55.363 – 53 laps
50 Larbre Competition – 1:55.964 – 17 laps
55 IPB Spartak Racing – 1:57.166 – 25 laps
61 Strakka Racing – 1:58.809 – 27 laps
76 IMSA Performance Matmut – 1:59.410 – 43 laps
77 Team Felbermayr Proton – 1:59.503 – 34 laps
96 Virgo Motorsport – 1:59.735 – 28 laps
75 IMSA Performance Matmut – 2:01.293 – 37 laps
99 JMB Racing – 2:03.312 – 56 laps
94 Speedy Racing Team – 2:03.502 – 57 laps
33 Speedy Racing Team Sebah – 2:08.078 – 4 laps

More to come…

Find the full entry list for the Paul Ricard Test Days here.