Le
Mans Series 2009
Round 3. Autodromo do Algarve 1000 Kilometres. August 1st
2009
Thursday Review
Light
and Dark
Free
Practice 1
Having
a night race on Saturday has shifted the weekend’s
programme forwards by at least 24 hours, so first and second
practice sessions took place on Thursday afternoon, starting
with and hour of Free Practice 1 at four-forty-five. With
all the preliminary set-up work to complete, Tommy was out
for almost the entire session, with Mike managing just half
a dozen laps at the very end.
“It was soon clear that we
were going to have to change a lot of things on the car,”
said Tommy. “We had the basics of a half-decent setting
based upon the data we’d collected here in February,
but we’ve moved on a long way since then, and learned
so much more about the car. It was pretty clear that we
were well short of our true potential, but it was an encouraging
start.”
After
half a dozen exploratory laps, Tommy brought the RML Lola
back into the garage, and the team spent fifteen minutes
or so tweaking some of the settings before sending the Brazilian
back out again. As a “stage two”, the changes
had certainly helped, and Tommy’s first flyer was
a 1:38.416, and quick enough for third-fastest in LMP2,
12th overall.
It
wasn’t all plain sailing, however, and there was one
incident in Turn 3 that kept Tommy on his toes. It was shortly
after a red flag restart, and he was following the two Aston
Martin Lolas back out onto the track. “A GT2 car had
spun out of Turn 3, and I could see it just round the corner
ahead of us. The first Aston braked hard, but the second
was directly behind, and maybe hadn’t seen the spinner,
and he just ploughed into the back of his team-mate,”
said Tommy. “It wasn’t the hardest of bumps,
but it was quite entertaining to watch!” Both AM Lolas
went into the pits, the 007 bearing some front-end damage.
LMP2
Free Practice 1
Pos |
No. |
O/all |
Team |
Drivers |
Car |
Best
Lap |
1 |
40 |
9 |
Quifel
ASM |
Amaral/Pla |
Ginetta-Zytek
GZ09S |
1:35.858 |
2 |
33 |
10 |
Speedy
Sebah |
Pompidou/Luenberger/Kane |
Lola
B08/80 Coupé |
1:36.972 |
3 |
25 |
12 |
RML
AD Group |
Erdos/Newton |
Lola
B08/86 Coupé |
1:38.416 |
4 |
41 |
13 |
GAC
Racing Team |
Ojeh/Gosselin/Peter |
Zytek 07S |
1:38.502 |
5 |
29 |
15 |
Racing
Box |
Ceccato/Francioni/Piccini |
Lola
B08/86 Coupé |
1:39.068 |
6 |
35 |
16 |
Oak
Racing |
Ajlani/Lahaye |
Pescarolo
Mazda |
1:39.546 |
7 |
30 |
17 |
Racing
Box |
Biagi/Bobbi/Piccini |
Lola
B08/86 Coupé |
1:39.682 |
8 |
37 |
18 |
WR
Salini |
Salini/Salini/Jouanny |
WR
Zytek |
1:42.052 |
9 |
24 |
19 |
Oak
Racing |
Nicolet/Hein |
Pescarolo
Mazda |
1:43.368 |
10 |
43 |
20 |
Q8
Oils Hache |
Jorda/Cortes/Nieto |
Lucchini
Judd |
1:45.524 |
11 |
26 |
21 |
Bruichladdich |
Bruneau/Greaves/Sini |
Radical
SR9 AER |
1:45.566 |
|
|
|
NO
TIME |
(Did not take part in the session) |
|
|
12 |
28 |
- |
Ibanez
Racing |
Ibanez/da
Rocha/Cavailhes |
Courage
AER |
no
time |
Free
Practice 2
During
the break between sessions the team worked again on detailed
set-up adjustments. “We’ve made a stack of changes,”
said Tommy before heading out for the start of the night-time
session; Free Practice 2. The sun goes down very rapidly
in the Algarve and what passes for bright daylight at eight
has descended into almost complete darkness by nine, punctuated
by glorious deep orange and pink skies that cast dark shadows
beneath the silhouetted undulating hills that surround the
circuit. By half-nine, when the first cars were heading
out onto the circuit, it was already night.
Tommy
completed five more routine laps to establish the effectiveness
of the alterations, then headed back to the garage where
the engineers effected another set of revisions. His next
flyer was a 1:37.868, and set the #25 car third in LMP2.
“The changes worked well,” admitted Tommy, “but
that time is still not representative of what we can do
round here, but we’re getting closer.”
It
would be his best of the evening, although he got very close
on several further occasions, but a succession of stops
for more changes, and a lengthy red flag period, meant it
was difficult to establish a rhythm. It was sufficient to
determine some preliminary impressions of the circuit at
night. “They’ve added lights to the circuit,
but only in very small areas, and it’s very difficult
to see. We have the advantage of having tested here, so
we do have some idea of the layout, but for those who’ve
not been here before, it’s going to be a challenge,”
observed Tommy.”
When RML was here in February, both
drivers commented on the irregular surface and the severe
ridges that punctuate the main straight. Over the months
other teams have tested here, and many drivers have voiced
their concerns over two bumps in particular – one
in Turn 16, and another jaw-breaker just after the finish
line. “The bumps are absolutely horrendous, and the
one along the pit straight is actually so bad it’s
dangerous,” suggests Tommy. “I’m so disappointed
that they’ve not made any attempt to address this
problem since we were here in February, and in the months
since then the severity actually appears to have increased.
It’s truly horrible.”
The
issue over these bumps has been the subject of widespread
debate, even in the Portuguese media, where the issue has
been seen as a significant detraction from what is otherwise
a fabulous circuit. “I did manage to find one line
down the start-finish that didn’t knock my teeth out!”
said Mike Newton.
Mike went into the car for the final
forty minutes, but didn’t enjoy the experience. “I
don’t think I’m going to enjoy this race,”
he said. “The visibility is so poor at night that
it’s almost impossible to gauge the correct line,
especially with the number of blind crests and hidden apexes.
The trouble is, if you go off the accepted line you end
up picking up loads of rubbish on the tyres, so you’re
penalised twice over. It might be better when I’ve
got the track better in my head, after another daylight
session perhaps, but the illumination is appalling –
quite inadequate. It’s the darkest I think I can ever
recall for a night race, and it’s horrible.”
Both
drivers shared similar concerns about the lighting and the
surface, but Tommy was also thinking ahead to the race.
“The circuit is very tight for this kind of racing,”
he said. “I think we could see a lot of incidents
here. All it will take is one car to lose it over the brow
of a hill, and the next car through at full chat will have
no chance.” It’s a great circuit, with a stunning
future, but this might be a bit early in its life to be
hosting a night race for 35 of the world’s fastest
sports and GT racecars.
LMP2
Free Practice 2
Pos |
No. |
O/all |
Team |
Drivers |
Car |
Best
Lap |
1 |
40 |
10 |
Quifel
ASM |
Amaral/Pla |
Ginetta-Zytek
GZ09S |
1:35.260 |
2 |
29 |
12 |
Racing
Box |
Ceccato/Francioni/Piccini |
Lola
B08/86 Coupé |
1:36.776 |
3 |
41 |
13 |
GAC
Racing Team |
Ojeh/Gosselin/Peter |
Zytek 07S |
1:37.140 |
4 |
33 |
14 |
Speedy
Sebah |
Pompidou/Luenberger/Kane |
Lola
B08/80 Coupé |
1:37.424 |
5 |
25 |
15 |
RML
AD Group |
Erdos/Newton |
Lola
B08/86 Coupé |
1:37.868 |
6 |
30 |
16 |
Racing
Box |
Biagi/Bobbi/Piccini |
Lola
B08/86 Coupé |
1:38.960 |
7 |
35 |
17 |
Oak
Racing |
Ajlani/Lahaye |
Pescarolo
Mazda |
1:39.720 |
8 |
37 |
18 |
WR
Salini |
Salini/Salini/Jouanny |
WR
Zytek |
1:39.836 |
9 |
24 |
19 |
Oak
Racing |
Nicolet/Hein |
Pescarolo
Mazda |
1:41.036 |
10 |
43 |
20 |
Q8
Oils Hache |
Jorda/Cortes/Nieto |
Lucchini
Judd |
1:42.496 |
11 |
26 |
22 |
Bruichladdich |
Bruneau/Greaves/Sini |
Radical
SR9 AER |
1:44.120 |
12 |
28 |
24 |
Ibanez
Racing |
Ibanez/da
Rocha/Cavailhes |
Courage
AER |
1:44.928 |
For
high resolution digital photographs, please
visit the Algarve
Gallery.
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happenings at the Algarve live on Radio Le Mans: