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Toyota takes one step forward and two back

Posted by June 13, 2012No comments

LE MANS, France — Andre Lotterer laid down a last minute super lap to take top time in Wednesday evening’s first qualifying session. Lotterer and team languished in fourth or fifth place on the qualifying ladder for much of the evening while Toyota TS030 hybrid driver Alexander Wurz put in a 3:27.191 time on a slowing track that was second fastest for a goodly portion of the evening qualifying session. However, before the end of the session he dropped to third when Romain Dumas turned in a late quick lap in the No 3. R18 Ultra and then to fourth when Lotterer laid down his fast lap.

Lotterer’s lap of 3:25.453 was just a blink of the eye slower than the team’s top time in the afternoon practice session and knocked thet wiley veteran team of Allan McNish, Dindo  Capello, and Tom Kristensen in the No. 2 Audi R18 etron into second place on the qualifying ladder.

McNish held top time for the majority of the session, but when Kristensen jumped into the car for his last stint of the night he went out and upped McNish’s top time with a snazzy 3:25.536 lap with about 20 minutes left in the session. He was about two-tenths of a second faster than McNish. It looked like the No.2 Audi had locked up the top time of the session until Lotterer made his mad midnight dash.

Third over all was the No. 3 Audi R18 Ultra while the No. 7 Toyota was fourth, the No. 4. Audi was fifth and the No. 8 Toyota was sixth on the ladder.

P2 top time was captured by the Oreca 03-Nissan with Pierre Thiriet doing the honors. LMGTEPro found Tommy Milner in the Corvette C6 ZR1 topping the field while in GTAM the Flying Lizards Porsche 911 RSR  found the top run on the qualifying ladder with Spencer Pumpelly pushing on the fast pedal.

Sun shines on Audi in 1st practice session

Posted by June 13, 2012No comments

LE MANS, France — The sun danced around the Circuit du La Sarthe this afternoon brightening a day that at time was threatened by showers. It shined brightest on the Audi team as it posted the top four times again — it did the same thing at the test day last Sunday.

This time is was the No. 1 Audi of Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer, and Benoit Treluyer that took top time. Lotterer did the honors on lap 14 of his 15 laps young the course in 3:25.163 in the Audi R18 e-tron. The second e-tron car had the number two time with Tom Kristensen doing the honors with a lap that was 1331 second slower. The two e-tron cars were followed closely by the two Audi R18 Ultras to sweep qualifying. The No 3 Audi was their and the No 4 was fourth.

However, the Toyota team was not that far off the pace in fifth and sixth place with the best time of the two entries  from Toyota 3.258 seconds off the pace. However, it was Toyota that showed its pedigree in turning the fastest speed in the first session of 332.1 kph. That was three kph faster than Audi’s best effort that was turned in by the No. 4 R18 Ultra with Marco Bonanomi dialing up the fast Audi time.

The Batmobile Delta Car, which is entered as an experimental car had a time that is competitive with the LMP2 cars. Top time for the LMP2 cars went to the Starworks Motorsport Honda-powered team driven by Thomas Kimber-Smith with a time 3:39.656. The Delta Wing, with the same power plant toured the course with a best time of 3:43.576.

In the GT classes the Aston Martin Advantage turned turned the tables on the LM GTEPro field with top time. the first session. Darren Turner did the honors for the  Vantage team and pitched a time of 3.57.036. The Ferarri 458 Italia of Luxury  Racing had the second fastest time by a little more that four tenths of a second while the Vette of Corvette Racing turned the third fastest time, another two tenths behind. In LM GTEAm the Vantage again proved itself with a top time that was also faster than several of the GTPro cars. Allan Simonsen turned a 3:57.753 for top honors, a time that was faster than the majority of Pro cars.

Rain, rain go away

Posted by June 13, 2012No comments

LE MANS, Fr — Rain is the focus of most of the talk on a day when not much more was going on at the Circuiit du La Sarthe — the 8.469 mile historic here in France.

The weather has been cloudy with short rainy spurts and equally short sun bursts as teams have worked in the garage area on getting their steeds prepared for the first day of practice on Wednesday. But it would seem that the weather has trumped all other conversations — and it is anyone’s guess as to the weather for race.

Most, however, are expecting at least some rain for this race and the weatherman seems to point to this Le Mans being a wet one. None of the weather guessers seem to be in total agreement as to the weather for the 80th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, this year a part of the Automobile Club O’uest (ACO) / Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) World Endurance Championship (WEC) series. This is seen in team preparation in the pits with teams showing their train tires in readiness during pit walk-throughs.

The short odds for the overall victory lie with the Audi team with four cars here — two of their new R18 diesel e-tron flywheel hybrid vehicles and two of their R18 Diesel TDI cars. They will likely face stiff competition from the Toyota TS030 hybrid which even Audi drivers have admitted has surprised them with its speed.

There are also a passel of other petrol based LMP1 cars who will vie for a podium spot, more hoping for one of the front runners to break than actually being able to run with the two top teams. Interestingly enough, if you had not attended this prestigious event in past years you would not even know that Peugeot fielded a team; it is almost as if a clean team swept the track and removed every vestige of the team that won here once in its five year stay.

In LMP2 there are no less than 20 teams here, all of which think they have a good chance of a podium at the end of 24 hours on Sunday.  The GT class will be its usual dogfight with 20 entries. One team that is notable by its absence is BMW with no cars entered.

It is also notable to see that members of the now defunct Peugeot team have all seemingly found rides for the 80th running of 24 Hours of Le Mans. Marc Gene, a member of the winning Peugeot team in 2009 landed in an Audi seat and proceeded to take his R18 Ultra to first place at the second WEC race of the year at Spa. A second member of that winning Peugeot team, Alexander Wurz landed with the highly touted Toyota hybrid team.

Two other former Peugeot pilots landed on the second Toyota team. Englishman Anthony Davidson and Frenchman Stephan Sarrazin also are driving for the Toyota hybrid team. Davidson, a member of the Peugeot winning team at Sebring in 2010 while Sarrazin brings the experience of three pole positions at Le Mans in 2007, 2008, and 2009,

Sebastian Bourdais, the pole winner in 2010 and a second place finisher at Circuit de La Sarthe in 2007, 2009, and 2011with Peugeot joined the Pescarlo Dome- Judd team to round out the former Peugeot drivers who are competing at the 24 hours race this year.

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