Well I made a balls-up of qualifying – but sitting here now in the Le Mans sunshine it really is quite difficult to be become too angry about P3 from 61 cars. Just having the chance to drive on this circuit in a car like this is making me pinch myself.
We made some small set-up changes before quali, just the roll bars, then headed out on fresh rubber with something of a plan. The test data showed that I was only a few hundredths off Michael Meadows from the start-finish until the end of the Mulsanne section but, after that, he began pulling away and completely pulled my trousers down through the Porsche Curves, to the tune of 1.5 seconds!
Harris is the man with the plan; can he enact it?
So the plan was to get tyre temperature on the out-lap, then go for a time on lap two. The first signs this might not sync with the tyres hitting the sweet spot (which doesn’t last the entire lap here!) was how sticky the front felt through the second chicane on that out-lap. If the fronts were already that good, by the time I began my flyer, they’d be past it. And so they proved to be.
Furthermore, I probably played the traffic wrong. Fellow Brit Karl Leonard was right ahead of me beginning that flyer, but I wanted clear track, so nipped past him into the penultimate chicane (sorry Karl!) and set off. But it was too busy and I think I did a mid-4min 10sec, about half a second slower than in the test. Track temperature was quite a bit hotter though.
Then I just found myself in heaps of traffic and instead of doing the grown-up thing and looking for some space, I ran with the crowd hoping to pick up the odd tow. It didn’t work - then someone managed to deposit most of a Cup car on the way into Indianapolis, and there were several other smaller offs, and the red flag was deployed. Everyone pitted for new rubber. I was P20.
The plan now was to literally coast the out-lap, then try one flyer. Clearly everyone else had the same idea because there was a slow moving train of Cup cars trundling with the green flags waving.
If this is quali what's the race going to be like?
All looked good, everyone gave each other space – and I fluffed the second chicane; got on the gas a touch too early and lost a few tenths with a small slide. The Porsche curves were better and the overall time was better, but not good enough. I was catching other cars now and had something quicker behind me harrying me for the last half of the lap – no way I was letting him through and losing the time though.
Next lap I was better everywhere, carried way more speed on the exit of the Porsche Curves and the lap delta showed a big gain. And right on cue, I tried too hard into the final chicane – which is a complete pig with huge kerbs – and spun. 300 yards from the end of a seven-mile lap, with easily my best time in sight! Idiot Monkey!
Now I’d had the best from the rubber, but had to set a time so just bullied my way around some other cars and managed a 4min 9.209sec, seven tenths quicker than the day before. It gave me 30th and 6th in class. But the theoretical best according to sector times would have been 4min 07.917sec (nice Porsche Le Mans parity there) and 26th overall. I think would have been a fair reflection. Even then, it’s easy to spot where there’s more time – whether I have the subtlety of touch with the brake pedal to deliver them is another question.
It was a hell of a challenge, and I made a few mistakes. But we’re top half of the grid and have enough pace to hopefully squeeze past a few in the race.
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