Le
Mans Series 2007
Round 4. Spa 1000 Kilometers. August 17th - 19th 2007
Saturday
Report
Third
Session
With
the Radical World Cup qualifying session completed on time
at half-nine, it was all-set for an hour of final free practice
for the Le Mans Series cars. It proved to be an exciting
session for the LMP2 runners, with some significant improvements
by most of the squads, and some surprises too.
Those
came later, as there was nothing unexpected in Michael Verger's
opening lap of 2:11.555, which initially topped the P2 charts.
De Castro was also quickly into his stride, although 2:14.043
was a pale reflection on yesterday's oh-seven. Tommy's first
flyer was a 2:12.217, and slotted the MG neatly in between
the two, for the time being anyway.
De
Castro ended his opening run with a 2:10.217, moving ahead
of both Vergers and Erdos, who completed another three laps
(without posting an improvement) before handing over to
Mike Newton. Mike had missed Friday's second session, so
appreciated the chance to get back aboard. Just before this
happened, however, Darren Manning drew a few gasps from
the assembled watchers in the press room by clocking a lap
of 2:08.157 in the Embassy Radical. That moved the black
car through to third overall, and was by far the best run
from the Embassy SR9 all weekend.
Various
pitstops were being completed at this stage in the session
- Barazi swapping with Vergers in the #32 Zytek, Amaral
getting into the #40 Lola and Bill Binnie in the #31. Mike
Newton picked up where he'd left off in Friday's first session,
posting consistent times in the mid to low fourteens, but
then pulling a quick one out of the bag with a 2:12.9. "I
was particularly pleased with that!" he said later.
"I didn't get a single clean lap, and setting that
twelve-nine included a GT2 car through Blanchimont, so I
feel very satisfied."
Mike
pitted once for a few adjustments at 10:15, but stayed in
the car, while Warren Hughes took over the Embassy Radical
from Manning. This was followed, coincidentally, by a spurt
of new and improved times throughout the LMP2 field. A stunning
2:06.816 from Michael Vergers, back in the Barazi Zytek
once again, finally shaded Manning's best from the Radical,
and would stand as the best of the day from LMP2, assuring
the Gulf-sponsored car of top honours at this stage in the
weekend's proceedings.
Van
de Poele was also making progress in the #27 Horag Lola;
2:11.734 being enough to move the red and white car up a
few places. Similarly, improvements from Stuart Moseley
(a best of 2:10.127) had the Bruichladdich SR9 into fourth,
followed moments later by a 2:12.793 from Jouanny in the
Saulnier Courage.
This
left the MG looking a little out of place in seventh, but
at 10:35 Tommy was strapped back into the cockpit and headed
out onto the new La Source tarmac to have another stab.
An improved 2:09.965 came from Burgueno before the Brazilian
was back into his stride, and when he did, a 2:09.557 was
the result. That closed the session from the RML MG Lola,
with fourth in class being "more than good enough"
as far as Erdos was concerned. "Our individual sector
times are looking very encouraging," he added, by way
of explanation. "Once again, I never managed to find
a clean lap, but I think we're looking strong for this afternoon."
Top
LMP2 Times - Session 3
Pos |
No. |
Overall |
Team |
Driver |
Car |
Time |
1 |
32 |
8 |
Barazi
Epsilon |
Vergers/Ojeh/Barazi |
Zytek
07S |
2:06.816 |
2 |
45 |
12 |
Embassy
Racing |
Hughes/Manning |
Radical
SR9 AER |
2:08.157 |
3 |
40 |
13 |
Quifel
ASM |
Amaral/de
Castro/Burgueno |
Lola
B05/40 AER |
2:09.081 |
4 |
25 |
14 |
RML
AD Group |
Erdos/Newton |
MG
Lola EX264 |
2:09.557 |
5 |
21 |
15 |
Bruichladdich |
Moseley/Greaves |
Radical
SR9 AER |
2:10.127 |
6 |
31 |
19 |
Binnie
Motorsports |
Binnie/Timpany/Buncombe |
Lola
B05/40 Zytek |
2:10.756 |
7 |
27 |
17 |
Horag
Racing |
Lienhard/Theys/Van
de Poele |
Lola
B05/40 Judd |
2:11.680 |
8 |
35 |
19 |
Saulnier
Racing |
Nicolet/Filhol/Jouanny |
Courage
LC75 AER |
2:12.168 |
9 |
44 |
20 |
Kruse
Motorsport |
de
Pourtales/Siedler |
Pescarolo
C60 Judd |
2:13.265 |
10 |
20 |
21 |
Pierre
Bruneau |
Rostan/Bruneau/Pullan |
Pillbeam
MP93 Judd |
2:13.453 |
11 |
26 |
32 |
Ranieri
Randaccio |
Randaccio/Collini |
Lucchini
McLaren |
2:22.952 |
Qualifying
At
dot on 14:40, the crescendo of noise from the end of the
Spa pitlane announced the beginning of the official 20-minute
prototypes-only qualifying session. For the first time,
the twenty-two LMP1 and LMP2 cars would have the entire
seven-kilometre circuit to themselves, and the prospect
of clear track brought with it the promise of even faster
times. The bet was on . . . would the Peugeots duck under
that magical two-minute barrier for the first time, and
could Thomas Erdos beat the pundits and claim his second
LMP2 pole of the year?
The
first of those tantalising questions was answered very promptly
- by the Brazilian's opening flyer. A weekend best of 2:06.795
was a full second quicker than the MG had ever gone before,
and the best yet from anyone in the class.
Stuart
Moseley was the first to react, setting 2:08.568 to place
the Bruichladdich Radical second, with Warren Hughes third
in the similar Embassy car and Chris Buncombe fourth for
Binnie Motorsports. "Sector two looks very good Tommy,"
came Phil Barker's voice over the team radio. Sector three
was better still, and the MG swept across the line to record
an even better time of 2:06.660. It was the Brazilian's
third flying lap, and while he was happy enough to have
raised the bar yet higher, he wasn't best pleased with Michael
Vergers in the Barazi Epsilon Zytek.
The
Dutchman had just posted his own best lap, and at 2:07.137,
it was within half a second of the one Erdos had recently
completed, but the Brazilian had hoped that his second,
sandwiched between the two, might have been faster still.
"Vergers been going so slowly that the marshals were
even waving white flags," said Tommy, but as Erdos
came round the corner at Stavelot the Zytek suddenly eased
out into the middle of the track and started pulling away,
but nowhere near as quickly as the up-to-speed MG. "He
could easily have got out of the way, but he didn't,"
bemoaned the Brazilian, who had been forced to brake, and
thereby abort what could have been his quickest lap. "He's
a really nice guy," added Tommy later. "Were friends,
I think - not socially, but good enough, and I was sure
he wouldn't do something like that deliberately."
With
a warning light for low fuel now showing on the dashboard,
Tommy headed for the pitlane, where the car was pulled back
into the garage and refuelled before he sat out the remaining
eight minutes, watching the times, and ever-prepared to
go out again should the need arise. It didn't. With just
under three minutes to go, Vergers also pitted, just as
Joao Barbosa in the LMP1 Rollcentre Pescarolo split the
two LMP2 leaders. "I think we're OK now," said
Phil Barker from the pit wall. "We'll be on the front
row, and I'm happy with that."
The
chequered flag ended the session; the MG on class pole,
half a second clear of Vergers, and with Warren Hughes third
in the much-improved Embassy Radical, and the Quifel ASM
Lola fourth. Out at the very sharp end, there had been the
predicted intra-team battle between Minassian in the #7
Peugeot and his team-mate Stephane Sarrazin in the #8. The
duel concluded with Minassian a full half-second ahead of
Sarrazin, but a mere one-tenth off the elusive sub-two-minute
lap. His time; 2:00.105.
A
press release about RML's qualifying can be found here
LMP2
Qualifying Results
Pos |
No. |
Overall |
Team |
Driver |
Car |
Time |
1 |
25 |
10 |
RML
AD Group |
Erdos/Newton |
MG
Lola EX264 |
2:06.660 |
2 |
32 |
12 |
Barazi
Epsilon |
Vergers/Ojeh/Barazi |
Zytek
07S |
2:07.137 |
3 |
45 |
13 |
Embassy
Racing |
Hughes/Manning |
Radical
SR9 AER |
2:08.154 |
4 |
40 |
14 |
Quifel
ASM |
Amaral/de
Castro/Burgueno |
Lola
B05/40 AER |
2:08.262 |
5 |
31 |
15 |
Binnie
Motorsports |
Binnie/Timpany/Buncombe |
Lola
B05/40 Zytek |
2:08.331 |
6 |
21 |
16 |
Bruichladdich |
Moseley/Greaves |
Radical
SR9 AER |
2:08.568 |
7 |
27 |
18 |
Horag
Racing |
Lienhard/Theys/Van
de Poele |
Lola
B05/40 Judd |
2:09.451 |
8 |
35 |
19 |
Saulnier
Racing |
Nicolet/Filhol/Jouanny |
Courage
LC75 AER |
2:10.146 |
9 |
44 |
20 |
Kruse
Motorsport |
Burgess/de
Pourtales/Siedler |
Pescarolo
C60 Judd |
2:10.354 |
10 |
20 |
21 |
Pierre
Bruneau |
Rostan/Bruneau/Pullan |
Pillbeam
MP93 Judd |
2:13.618 |
11 |
26 |
29 |
Ranieri
Randaccio |
Randaccio/Collini |
Lucchini
McLaren |
2:18.095 |
For full results of all races and events being staged at
the Spa this weekend, please visit this
link,
where it is possible to download PDF files for all sessions
There
are high resolution images posted in the Spa
Gallery.
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