Analysis

Planetlemans analyzes the Catalunya 1000km

© Planetlemans - Gabriel Portos // Like in 2007, first blood for Minassian - Gené

The first victory from Peugeot over Audi, a very successful debut of the Porsche RS Spyder in Europe, a good fight in GT1 and a recovery race from Ferrari finishing in a GT2 victory. Could you have asked for more in this opening of the 2008 LMS season? Certainly! Spectators to begin with, and they came. The official figure was 28,000 through the weekend, probably the biggest attendance ever of an LMS race.

So what did change this time around? The answer is easy: Audi’s presence and the duel with Peugeot on the road to Le Mans give the series a flavour of the classic it’s always wanted to be. More promotion, more TV coverage, some of the ingredients that should help this championship to grow to the status it deserves. There’s still work ahead but we are clearly in the right direction: the lights system for positions is there finally!

Some new drivers in the series have also attracted media attention: the Audi crew, Jos Verstappen, Olivier Panis, all well-known to the general public and a good ‘bridge” for the mainstream media to give more relevance to their doings in this well kept secret of motor racing, the LMS.

The race itself started at a frantic pace and the Peugeot-Audi duel was there from the word go. Both Peugeots were clearly quicker than the Audis but had different luck in the always difficult 47-car traffic: While number 7 (Marc Gené-Nicolas Minassian) flew over a meter high after hitting the Barazi Zytek and survived it without any problems, number 8 saw its race ruined after getting hit from behind by Tomas Enge in the Modena Aston Martin and further contact with the IPS Lamborghini of Peter Kox that got both cars on the gravel trap and caused a long garage stop for the “blue” 908.

Frustration therefore for the 2007 champions Pedro Lamy and Stéphane Sarrazin as it was for the lead Audi car (Allan McNish-Dindo Capello) that saw its race also tainted by a puncture and an alternator problem leaving the “young guns” Mike Rockenfeller and Alexandre Prémat to fight the number 7, even if their pace had not been as quick as the other diesels the whole weekend.

One could have thought that this was going to be a race of 5 classes with the Diesels in front and maybe the Porsches challenging but a fantastic debut from both Lola Coupés changed this assumption dramatically. In LMP1 the Lola-Aston Martin of Charouz Racing was the sensation of the weekend. The Saturday warning in testing setting the second time overall was confirmed by their race pace and a well deserved podium for Jan Charouz and Stefan Mücke. Running steady and having a flawless execution of their strategy, the Czech-British team demonstrated they have the potential to take the battle further as the car is developed.

The rest of the LMP1 field was left to fight behind these cars with Creation having a fantastic opening of the race until early issues got them into the pits for a very long period. They will be one to watch closely if they improve reliability. Oreca on the other side confirmed their historical skill in developing a car, the one equipped with the new aero package had a great run after almost the end of the race when they retired, Olivier Panis and Nicolas Lapierre shining under the Catalonian sun with consistently quick lap times. Pescarolo put up the usual show of reliability and managed to get both cars home in the points, even if some pace is missing Henri’s team is always there at the end…

Rollcentre also managed a finish despite issues with their fuel system while Lavaggi and Epsilon Euskadi saw their initial races turn into a successful shakedown: While the Monegasque-Italian team put more laps on the track than they ever had achieved, the Spanish-Basque operation of Joan Villadelprat managed to finish the race getting to a very important milestone. It’s important to note that Lavaggi only had fired the brand new AER engine for the first time on Friday afternoon while the Spanish team had to struggle with weight distribution issues that had their front and rear tyre temperatures to be on opposite sides of the thermometer (cold front, very hot rear). These are issues you do not solve in a race weekend so both teams should be satisfied with this first outing.

© Planetlemans - Gabriel Portos // A great debut for Verstappen-van Merksteijn

The LMP2 category saw the first ever victory of a Porsche RS Spyder on this side of the Atlantic. Impeccable preparation and teamwork from Equipe Verschuur allowed Jos Verstappen and Peter van Merksteijn to put up a memorable drive even when they had to recover from a stop-and-go caused by Verstappen overlooking a yellow flag. The 1.34 practice laps put by Verstappen were impressive as was the evolution of van Merksteijn that picked up a lot of speed by Sunday morning to drive a solid race to the win together with the ex-F1 driver.

Two cars challenged the Dutch Porsche Spyder seriously during the race: The Essex Porsche from John Nielsen-Casper Elgaard who had a shot at the win at heir rivals’ stop-and-go; however problems of their own with the rear bodywork meant a black flag/orange circle which was fatal for their win aspirations getting finally third in class. The other highlight of the class was the astounding Speedy–Sebah Lola Coupé Judd which also had the lead for a while and allowed Andrea Belicchi, Steve Zacchia and especially Xavier Pompidou to display their strong driving skills and get a second position in class.

2007 champions RML managed a fourth place with a brand new engine that was in shortage of speed, reigning champions Tommy Erdos and Mike Newton showing once more bringing the car home even in the toughest of circumstances is the key in this series. The Horag Porsche (Didier Theys-Freddy Lienhard-Jan Lammers) wrestled with two punctures and a sensor issue but was able to put down the quickest lap of the race in class when Lammers was behind the wheel which shows the car has full potential for good results.

Another team with a good start of the season was the Saulnier Pescarolo with a strong race by Pierre Ragues, Mathieu Lahaye and Bruce Jouanny, almost no mistakes even when their race was almost spoiled near the end by electrical problems. Quifel ASM had a good start of the weekend with Olivier Pla showing why Miguel Amaral chose him for his team, the race was another story and the team faded away with mechanical issues as the hours passed.

Disappointment for Embassy when a steering component failed and Jonathan France retired the other car in a very responsible attitude. Their performance have been acceptable but let’s not forget that this (like Lavaggi and Epsilon) was another case of a car with very low mileage which still has a lot to show, stay tuned… The Kruse-Schiller Lola-Mazda’s performance also was a bitter pill for Kai Kruse as he told Planetlemans, very good speed out of the box but poor reliability means a lot of work but definitely encouraging signs in terms of what the car can reach.

Very bad day for Zytek, the Embassy retirements were complemented by the Barazi car retiring after the aforementioned collision with the winning Peugeot while the Trading Performance car struggled with starter motor problems on Friday and was never on the pace even if it finished the race. Also a very opaque performance from the Zytek-powered WR off-pace the whole weekend. The Racing Box debut on LMP2 saw them way back as well with a huge climb ahead of them if they want to be in the pack.

© Planetlemans - Gabriel Portos // Luc alphand starting 2008 with a victory

The race at GT1 was very entertaining despite the small field, Modena the star of the field initially with a very strong drive by Antonio García and Tomas Enge despite some mistakes from the latter. Unfortunately the Aston developed a fuel leak which got worse and worse and finally forced them to retire, the car dramatically not making it to the pits for refuelling. As the race had been so close it was no problem for the lead car of Luc Alphand with the team owner, Patrice Goueslard and ex-Courage driver Guillaume Moreau to get a well-deserved win.

Larbre managed a solid second, the Saleen was not as dominant as last year but definitely very competitive. The IPS Lamborghini put a good fight as well even when their race pace was not as good as during practice as Peter Kox expressed during the press conference. Their involvement in the clash with Peugeot number 8 did not prevent them to debut on the podium.

© Planetlemans - Gabriel Portos // Bruni and Bell driving impeccably for Virgo

In GT2 the Virgo Ferrari 430GT demonstrated it is still the car to beat. 2007 champion Rob Bell and Ferrari driver Gianmaria Bruni were initially challenged by a puncture caused by contact with the Lola Aston but recovered pretty swiftly and drove a flawless race to the end. The Porsches wrestled with some rear balance issue Marc Lieb (partnering Alex Davison on the second-placed Felbermayr 77 Porsche) admitting the 997 needs more work on that section. IMSA’s lead car with Raymond Narac and Richard Lietz managed to overcome shock absorber issues that delayed their weekend progress to achieve a solid third.

A good performance also for the Farnbacher (Pierre Ehret-Pierre Kaffer-Anthony Beltoise) Ferrari finishing fourth and showing podium potential for the upcoming races. Bittersweet weekend for Spyker, manager Peter van Erp satisfied with fifth in class even if the Speedy car retired after an initial blunder that had them lost a wheel on their way to the grid. Both cars ran for the first time ever at Barcelona so you can call fifth in class a successful shakedown!

An exciting weekend which opens an avenue of hope for the rest of the season in terms of racing, competition, race attendance and series development. In 3 weeks at Monza we should see the confirmation of this being the best season ever of the Le Mans Series.