Le Mans Series

LMS Spa 1000 km - Warm-up report

© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat

Fourty-two cars took part in the warm-up session ahead of the 1000km of Spa later today. In a rather uneventful session, compared to the sessions earlier this weekend, it was Team Peugeot Total on top of the time sheets again. After their shunts yesterday the WR and the Kruse Schiller Lola did not take part in the session and their pit boxes were closed.

After twenty minutes of action the Peugeot 908 of Gene/Minassian/Villeneuve had set a fastest time of 2:00.933, over a second quicker than its nearest rivals. The gap between second and third place was only one tenth of a second, with the McNish/Capello Audi beating the second Peugeot.

The Porsche RS Spyders were on top of the LMP2 class. Sixth overall and first in the category was the Van Merksteijn Motorsport car. The Dutch team lapped the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in 2:06.096, which was over a second quicker than the Horag Racing Porsche, its fastest time set by Dutchman Jan Lammers. The third Spyder of Team Essex was just over three seconds behind the VM Porsche in third place.

The Luc Alphand Aventures Corvette number 72 was the fastest car in the LM GT1 category. Its 2:16.523 was not beaten by any of the other cars. Team Modena was the second fastest in class, but the gap to the Corvette was about 1.7 seconds. IPB Spartak Racing was third fastest, the Russian entry 1.5 seconds behind the Team Modena Aston Martin.

In GT2 the Virgo Motorsport Ferrari 430 GT set a 2:22.844. Unable to beat that lap time the Felbermayr-Proton team had to be content with second place, the Porsche 1.2 seconds behind the Ferrari. In third place it was another Ferrari, the Farnbacher Racing entry. This car was almost two seconds down on the Virgo car.