Le
Mans Series 2008
Round 2. Monza 1000 Kilometres. April 26th-27th 2008
Friday Review
Friday
Practice
The
Monza weekend could not have got off to a worse start. Eager
to get out on track, as always, Tommy was among the first
to head out onto the famous Monza circuit . . . and unquestionably
the first to stop. He hadn't even completed his out-lap
before the engine gave way, and he coasted to a halt.
The
team worked wonders in the three-hour gap between sessions,
and by the time the pitlane opened for the start of the
16:40 practice period, Tommy was already strapped into the
cockpit and, apart from a few final checks and adjustments,
the MG was up and running once again. Having lost the whole
of the first session, things were far from perfect, but
at least the car was setting reasonable times. Tommy was
disappointed with tenth quickest in class, but Mike Newton
managed a lap that was within a second of his best from
2007. That gave him some optimism for Saturday, and overall
the end-of-day prospects looked so much better than had
seemed possible at lunchtime.
First
Free Practice
After
such a very successful test at Silverstone on Monday, the
last thing the team could have expected was to send Tommy
off at the beginning of the weekend's first practice session,
and then have him radio back inside a minute to say the
engine had blown.
"I
was still on the installation lap," explained the Brazilian
later. "I'd not been out on track long when I noticed
a low oil warning light. I reported that to the team straight
away, and we agreed to keep an eye on it. Initially the
first feedback from the telemetry was OK, just a slightly
rise in temperature, so I pressed on towards the Lesmo corners.
The engine didn't seem quite right going through there,
and then as I came out, and started to accelerate down the
straight towards Ascari, the temperature rose very suddenly.
It went very hot, very quickly. I switched off immediately,
and at the same time, the engine suddenly gave way. Drrrrdrrrrdrrrddrrrddrrd
!!"
The
sound from the engine was something like a bagful of marbles
in a cement mixer - according to fellow reporter Graham
Goodwin - but Erdos had possibly cut the power just in time.
He coasted through the Ascari chicane and pulled over on
the exit, where the marshals collected the car and pushed
in to safety behind the barriers. With less than two minutes
of the hour-long session completed, the MG's XP-21 engine
was silent.
"I
looked underneath, and there appeared to be water coming
out, but no oil," said Tommy. "In any event, it
was a pretty catastrophic failure, and deeply, deeply disappointing."
The team dispatched a car to collect Tommy, and Adam Hughes
(left) stayed behind to keep an eye on the car,
and then steer it back to the pits on the end of a towrope
when the session ended. "The lads will do their best
to have it fixed in time for the next session, but there's
an awful lot of work involved," mused Tommy."It
may be we won't get any running until tomorrow."
Top
LMP2 Times - Session 1
| Pos |
No. |
Overall |
Team |
Driver |
Car |
Time |
| 1 |
34 |
11 |
Van
Merksteijn M/s |
Van
Mekrksteijn/Verstappen |
Porsche
RS Spyder |
1:39.386 |
| 2 |
31 |
12 |
Team
Essex |
Nielsen/Elgaard |
Porsche
RS Spyder |
1:39.691 |
| 3 |
27 |
13 |
Horag
Racing |
Lienhard/Theys/Lammers |
Porsche
RS Spyder |
1:39.768 |
| 4 |
40 |
15 |
Quifel
ASM |
Amaral/Pla |
Lola
B05/40 AER |
1:40.033 |
| 5 |
32 |
16 |
Barazi
Epsilon |
Barazi/Vergers/Rees |
Zytek
07S |
1:41.121 |
| 6 |
33 |
18 |
Speedy
Sebah |
Belicchi/Pompidou/Zacchia |
Lola
Bo8/80 Coupé |
1:41.609 |
| 7 |
46 |
20 |
Embassy
Racing |
Kane/Foster |
WF01
Zytek |
1:42.055 |
| 8 |
35 |
21 |
Saulnier
Racing |
Ragues/Lahaye |
Pescarolo
Judd |
1:42.100 |
| 9 |
45 |
22 |
Embassy
Racing |
Hughes/Haberfield |
WF01
Zytek |
1:43.301 |
| 10 |
26 |
23 |
Bruichladdich |
Rostan/Petersen/Lueders |
Radical
SR9 AER |
1:43.428 |
| 11 |
44 |
24 |
Kruse
Schiller |
de
Pourtales/Noda |
Lola
B05/40 |
1:43.732 |
| 12 |
41 |
25 |
Trading
Performance |
Ojeh/Gosselin/Schroyen |
Zytek
07S |
1:44.470 |
| 13 |
30 |
26 |
Racing
Box |
Didaio/Francioni |
Lucchini
Judd |
1:45.475 |
| 14 |
37 |
37 |
WR
Salini |
Salini/Salini/Roussel |
WR
Zytek |
1:52.957 |
| - |
25 |
- |
RML
AD Group |
Erdos/Newton |
MG
Lola EX265 |
-
: - -.- - - |
The
Van Merksteijn Porsche RS Spyder, below, was quickest in
LMP2 during Friday's first Free Practice
With
the car towed back to the pitlane, the team had to set aside
thoughts of a leisurely lunch and begin removing the engine
and all major ancillaries.
The
last time they'd had to complete this operation - the removal
of one engine and complete refitting of a replacement -
it had taken nearly five and a half hours. This afternoon
they had Tommy back into the cockpit and pressing the start
button in a little under three. "If the components
are dressed properly, I think we could shave another half
hour off that," smiled Phil Barker, clearly proud of
what his team had achieved.
Second
Free Practice
With
the session scheduled to begin at four twenty-five, it was
an impressive achievement to see Tommy heading out on track
at just after half-past. He completed an untroubled installation
lap, and returned to the garage, where the crew swiftly
removed the engine cover and gave the unit a thorough check.
Not only had the engine been replaced, but the oil cooler,
reservoir and all associated pipework, as well as the turbo
and exhaust systems. That gave plenty of unions and joins
with the potential to leak, but with nothing amiss, the
MG was signed off as good to go.
Tommy's
first flying lap was a 1:45.567, and he followed that with
a 1:44.080, and then a succession of similar times, before
clocking 1:42.894 just before the red flags came out to
signal the first pause in the session. The Bruichladdich
Radical had pulled up beside the entry to Parabolica, and
needed to be recovered before practice could resume.
At
4:58 the pitlane was reopened. "We're working on building
up our characters at the moment," shrugged Mike Newton
from the garage. Although eighth in LMP2 was starting to
look much more encouraging, there was no doubting that the
pressure was mounting, and the feedback from Tommy suggested
there was still a considerable amount still to do.
Another
couple of visits to the garage and Tommy had achieved as
much as he could in this session. Mike hadn't yet driven
the car, so after an enforced break for a second red flag,
the CEO of AD Group tightened his belts and headed out.
After a couple of sighters, he came through in a day's best
of 1:45.891. "That's within three-quarters of a second
of what I set here last year," he smiled. "That's
a good start for me, and with the car well short of a good
set-up at the moment, I'm sure we can be a lot quicker than
that."
Having
lost the entire first session, and having to concentrate
on simply getting the MG to run at all, there had been no
time to address the question of establishing a good set-up
for the Monza circuit -a track quite unlike almost any other,
save perhaps Le Mans itself. A high speed, power-sapping
track, punctuated by just three slow corners and a few very
quick ones, it offers challenges that are rarely encountered
anywhere else. Establishing the right balance for the car
is vital to a quick lap, and so far there's been no chance
to do more than think about it. "At the moment, it
feels almost like two completely different cars, joined
together somewhere near the middle," said Mike. "There's
very good grip at both ends, but they're not behaving in
the same way, and it makes the car very twitchy."
"Mike's
absolutely right," agreed Tommy. "There's a lot
of work to do now in trying to establish a good set-up for
the car. We'll look at all the data, make an educated guess
as to where we need to be to start tomorrow's first session,
and take it from there." He had nothing but praise
for the mechanics. "It was incredible, the way they
changed the engine in under three hours. A simply brilliant
effort."
"Not
the best day in the office," said Phil Barker, "but
these things are sent to try us. We've lost a lot of time
today, but we've come back from situations like this before."
The Saturday session begins at 10:05 am.
Top
LMP2 Times - Session 2
| Pos |
No. |
Overall |
Team |
Driver |
Car |
Time |
| 1 |
34 |
10 |
Van
Merksteijn M/s |
Van
Mekrksteijn/Verstappen |
Porsche
RS Spyder |
1:37.798 |
| 2 |
33 |
13 |
Speedy
Sebah |
Belicchi/Pompidou/Zacchia |
Lola
Bo8/80 Coupé |
1:39.016 |
| 3 |
31 |
14 |
Team
Essex |
Nielsen/Elgaard |
Porsche
RS Spyder |
1:39.535 |
| 4 |
32 |
16 |
Barazi
Epsilon |
Barazi/Vergers/Rees |
Zytek
07S |
1:40.072 |
| 5 |
27 |
17 |
Horag
Racing |
Lienhard/Theys/Lammers |
Porsche
RS Spyder |
1:40.379 |
| 6 |
46 |
19 |
Embassy
Racing |
Kane/Foster |
WF01
Zytek |
1:41.554 |
| 7 |
35 |
20 |
Saulnier
Racing |
Ragues/Lahaye |
Pescarolo
Judd |
1:42.086 |
| 8 |
41 |
22 |
Trading
Performance |
Ojeh/Gosselin/Schroyen |
Zytek
07S |
1:42.334 |
| 9 |
40 |
23 |
Quifel
ASM |
Amaral/Pla |
Lola
B05/40 AER |
1:42.715 |
| 10 |
25 |
24 |
RML
AD Group |
Erdos/Newton |
MG
Lola EX265 |
1:42.894 |
| 11 |
45 |
25 |
Embassy
Racing |
Hughes/Haberfield |
WF01
Zytek |
1:43.047 |
| 12 |
26 |
26 |
Bruichladdich |
Rostan/Petersen/Lueders |
Radical
SR9 AER |
1:43.953 |
| 13 |
30 |
27 |
Racing
Box |
Didaio/Francioni |
Lucchini
Judd |
1:44.858 |
| 14 |
44 |
28 |
Kruse
Schiller |
de
Pourtales/Noda |
Lola
B05/40 |
1:45.296 |
| 15 |
37 |
37 |
WR
Salini |
Salini/Salini/Roussel |
WR
Zytek |
1:52.043 |
There
are high resolution images posted in the Monza
Gallery.
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