Le Mans Series

LMS Paul Ricard – Monday Morning Test Report

© Planetlemans – Marcel ten Caat

The second day of testing at Paul Ricard got underway at 9 am. Unlike Sunday the track was closed for spectators. Yesterday there were almost 4,000 spectators, today the stands were empty. A strong wind made the conditions somewhat different as well, but it did not prevent Team Oreca from setting the fastest time.

Olivier Panis set the fastest time in the morning session. The French driver lapped the 5.791 km long track in 1:40.903, enough to keep his rivals far away from the LC70. Speedy Racing Team Sebah’s Lola Aston Martin was the second fastest car on the track, though the Swiss Lola was over a second slower than its French opponent. Signature Plus and Team Oreca Matmut-AIM completed a successful morning for the Courage-Oreca cars.
The 009 Lola Aston Martin, the only one racing after the 007 crashed yesterday, was fifth fastest.

In LMP2 it was te Quifel – ASM Team Ginetta-Zytek that beat the Team Essex Porsche RS Spyder by almost a second. Team Essex’ session ended early though when Casper Elgaard lost control of the car and slammed the back end of the RS Spyder into the wall. With its rear wing knocked of and some bodywork damage visible from the outside the car was loaded onto a flat bed transporter and brought back to the pit. OAK Racing finished the session in third place.

IPB Spartak Racing took first in the LM GT1 class. The Lamborghini Murcielago lapped the Circuit Paul Ricard HTTT in 1:54.411, beating the second fastest GT1 car by half a second. This time it wasn’t the Corvette in second place though, but the ARC Bratislava Saleen. The Luc Alphand Aventures was 1.2 seconds slower.

Last but not least GT2. Hankook-Team Farnbacher was quickest again. As the team is running 2008-spec restrictors on its Ferrari F430 GT2 a comparison with other Ferrari teams is somewhat difficult to make. Team Felbermayr Proton put its Porsche 997 GT3 RSR on second place, just under a tenth of a second behind the Ferrari. IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche #76 completed the top three. Its sister car, the #75, caused a red flag and was also brought back on a recovery truck.

1 – 11 – Team Oreca Matmut – 1:40.903
2 – 13 – Speedy Racing Team Sebah – 1:42.141
3 – 12 – Signature-Plus – 1:42.639
4 – 10 – Team Oreca Matmut – 1:42.932
5 – 009 – Aston Martin Racing – 1:43.033
6 – 40 – Quifel-ASM Team – 1:43.355
7 – 31 – Team Essex – 1:44.241
8 – 33 – Speedy Racing Team Sebah – 1:46.655
9 – 24 – OAK Racing – 1:47.787
10 – 38 – Pegasus Racing – 1:49.404
11 – 25 – RML – 1:51.018
12 – 55 – IPB Spartak Racing – 1:54.411
13 – 51 – ARC Bratislava-Kaneko – 1:54.952
14 – 72 – Luc Alphand Aventures – 1:56.223
15 – 89 – Hankook-Team Farnbacher – 1:58.152
16 – 88 – Team Felbermayr Proton – 1:58.233
17 – 76 – IMSA Performance Matmut – 1:58.341
18 – 92 – JMW Motorsport – 1:58.694
19 – 84 – Team Modena – 1:59.304
20 – 85 – Snoras Spyker Squadron – 1:59.584
21 – 87 – Drayson Racing – 2:01.381
22 – 75 – IMSA Performance Matmut – 2:01.396
23 – 81 – Easyrace – 2:01.467
24 – 99 – JMB Racing – 2:01.634
25 – 23 – Strakka Racing – 1:43.551
26 – 79 – Reiter Engineering – No time
26 – 007 – Aston Martin Racing – No time