Le Mans Series

LMS Spa 1000 km - Qualifying report

© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat

Team Peugeot Total have taken pole position for tomorrow’s 1000 kilometers of Spa in a crazy qualifying session. The qualifying already started some five minutes later due to incidents earlier in the day and while the GT cars had a trouble free session the LMP was interrupted twice by red flags. As the session ended almost 45 minutes after it was scheduled to end Sarrazin in his Peugeot/Audi had set the fastest lap and secured pole position.

Five minutes into the LMP session two incidents out on the track brought out the red flag. First it was the Team Oreca Matmut Courage-Oreca that spun as it approached the Bus Stop chicane, it appeared that Lapierre suffered a brake problem as he tried to brake for the corner. At almost the same time the Kruse Schiller Motorsport Lola Mazda slammed into the tyres at the first lefthander after Rivage. After just over twenty minutes the session was restarted.

Most LMP cars went out to either improve or set a time, but only ten minutes later it was the Quifel-ASM Team Lola that hit the wall at the exact same spot where the Kruse car went off before. Once again the red flag came out and the session came to halt again for another twenty minutes. At 15:15 the session was restarted with six minutes remaining on the clock.

Just prior to the first red flag McNish in the Audi R10 had already set a 1:58.705 as he opened the battle for pole position. Peugeot stayed in however and only went out the first time five minutes after the restart. Marc Gene then set the third fastest lap, but Sarrazin was unable to set a time as the second red flag came out. After the second restart it was Peugeot that went out while Audi stayed in the box, still in first and second. First Marc Gene improved his time putting him in between the Audi’s but the first flying lap of Stéphane Sarrazin was good enough to take him to the top of the time sheets, 1:58.069! As there was only one minute left the Audi team and the second Peugeot were unable to improve Sarrazins time.

In LMP2 the Van Merksteijn car stayed in while several other LMP2 cars went out. Dutchman Michael Vergers led the class at the half way point with most of the LMP2s at 2:07 and 2:08, but as Jos Verstappen came out his first flying lap was a 2:05.841 already. On his second lap he had to avoid the number 8 Peugeot on its outlap and did not improve. Belicchi in the Lola coupe set its second fastest time. As the session saw its final restart none of the LMP2s improved their lap time and it was the Van Merksteijn Porsche taking pole position, ahead of the Lola and the Barazi-Epsilon car.

Compared to the LMP session the GT qualifying was a rather normal one. No incidents marred the session and after twenty minutes it was over.

In the GT1 category it was Guillaume Moreau who was quickest at the half way point of the qualifying session, the Corvette driver had set a 2:16.797. Team Modena joined the party late after the car stayed on the jacks for over half of the session. But as soon as Antonio Garcia got out he was flying. On only his first flying lap he set a 2:16.074 and noone ever improved that time. Peter Kox was the third fastest driver behind Moreau putting the Lamborghini Murcielago third on the GT1 grid.

Gianmaria Bruni was ahead of he GT2 field. The Italian set a 2:21.205 early on and none of the other GT2 teams were able to catch up. Marc Lieb got close, but was still 0.156s behind the Ferrari 430 GT when the chequered flag came out. Pierre Kaffer in the Farnbacher Racing Ferrari 430 GT ended in third place, just over a second behind Bruni.