Other Series

FLM Winter Series: The second race weekend

The Formula Le Mans Winter Series was back in action at the Paul Ricard HTTT circuit this Sunday for round 2 of the series. Sixteen cars took part in the second meeting, with some interesting names joining the grid in the final event of 2009. Unlike round one the second round had a different winner in each race.

At 9 a.m. Sunday morning the track opened for the 90 minutes long free practice session. As expected the Formula Le Mans prototypes were fastest with eight out of nine places taken by FLM drivers. The Bountsen EnergyRacing #4 of Dominick Kraihamer and Norbert Lenzenwerger was fastest in practice, lapping the track in 1:29.508. Christophe Pillon in the Hope Pole Vision #3 was second fastest at 0.446s with the Charouz entered FLM car of Robbie Kerr and Tor Graves third fastest at 0.596s.

Fastest GT2 car was the CRS Racing Ferrari F430 GT2 of Nicola Larini and Klaas Hummel. The FIA GT2 team took part in this weekend’s race and is looking at racing in the 2010 Le Mans Series, which will have an 8-hour long race in April 2010.
The #56 Ferrari was some 4.5 seconds from the fastest time in the session, but still 1.8 quicker than the #37 Audi Team Oreca Audi R8 LMS GT3, driven by CRS Racing regulars Chris Goodwin and Klaas Hummel.

Half an hour after the end of the free practice session the action restarted with the qualifying session. 25 out of 28 drivers went out in the session and posted a lap time. Kraihamer topped the time sheets with a fastest time of 1:28.670, while Kerr put his Charouz FLM in second place just under four tenths of a second behind the Austrian, despite only running five laps in the session. Swiss driver Pillon claimed third place at 0.475s from Kraihamer. The top 5 finished within 1 second of each other, with all FLM drivers within the top 12.

Nicola Larini was the fastest GT2 driver in qualifying, his CRS Racing Ferrari just 0.059s slower than the slowest FLM car. Team Sofrev ASP’s Jerome Policand was 2nd fastest in GT in his Ferrari F430 GT3, one second behind Larini, with JMB’s Andrea Garbagnati in 3rd place.

The top five from qualifying finished in the same order in the opening race. Kraihamer had the best start, leaving everyone behind and after posting the fastest time on lap 4 it was clear that Pillon (#3) and David Zollinger (#7) were unable to catch up. Kraihamer won the race almost 16 seconds clear of his nearest rivals. Despite staying close to each other during the race Zollinger was unable to pass Pillon and had to settle for third, just eight tenths of a second separating the two drivers. Tor Graves took third place for Charouz.

Nicola Larini won the GT class, finishing sixth overall after 20 laps. Having started behind Michael Orts and Patrice Lafargue the Italian Ferrari driver moved into seventh place on the opening lap when Orts in the #6 DAMS FLM dropped all the way to the back of the grid. Lafargue in the #1 OAK Racing FLM seemed to get away from Larini at first but on lap 11 he was caught and Larini passed him for sixth.
Garbagnati eventually finished the race in 2nd place in the GT class (9th overall), with Gabriel Balthazard in the Sofrev ASP #38 Ferrari directly behind him taking 3rd place.

Fourteen cars took the start of the second sprint race, JMB’s Peter Kutemann (F430 GT2) and Jonathan Sicart (Maserati GT4) did not start. Unlike the opening race the gap between first and second place in this sprint race was very small. After 30 minutes of racing Christophe Pillon crossed the line in his Hope Pole Vision FLM in first place, followed by Tor Graves at 1.109s. Almost one minute behind Pillon and Graves the battle for third place was won by Andrea Barlesi in the #6 DAMS FLM, who beat Nicolas Misslin’s #9 JMB FLM by 1.6 seconds.

Jerome Policand finished eight overall, enough to take the GT class win. His Ferrari F430 GT3 finished five seconds ahead of the Audi Team Oreca R8 LMS of Chris Goodwin. Stephane Clareton was third in the #34 JMB Ferrari F430 GT3.

In the third and final race of the day, and with all sixteen cars back in action, Charouz drivers Robbie Kerr and Tor Graves took the top step of the podium, ahead of Nicolas Misslin (2nd) and Michel Orts and Andrea Barlesi (3rd).

Having started from pole position the #4 FLM of Kraihamer and Lenzenwerger held onto its lead until lap 16 when it was passed by the Charouz entry. A brief reprise of the lead lasted two laps and after the pit stops the #4 slowly dropped out of contention. It was third place after 24 laps, in fourth after 31 laps and by lap 35 the car was out of the race.
At the front Pillon and the Charouz car were battling it out, with the #9 of Misslin following in third. On the final lap Pillon passed the #8 and crossed the line in first place, only to receive a two lap penalty which dropped the car down to sixth place. As a result Robbie Kerr and Tor Graves were handed back the win, with a 28.336 seconds lead over Misslin and 1 lap over Orts/Barlesi. Klaas Hummel and Nicola Larini finished fourth overall, taking the GT class win, one second behind Orts and Barlesi. Hummel also took second place in the GT class, as the Audi R8 LMS he shared with Chris Goodwin beat the JMB Ferrari of Garbagnati and Clareton.

A very happy Circuit Manager Gérard Neveu commented: “We have today welcomed more than a thousand people to the site and offered a double bill to the spectators present. The Grand Prix Paul Ricard Test Track Karting and three races in the Winter Series. A nice way to end our 2009 season in style and with smiles faces. We even got a wonderful ray of sunshine in the afternoon, a very good sign going into 2010! ”

The final round of the Formula Le Mans Winter Series will take place on January 24, 2010.

Full results can be found at http://www.circuitpaulricard.com/sportcars-winter-series-p-611.html