Thursday 9th June 2011

Le Mans Qualifying - Peugeot Leads The Pack

Sarrazin grabs provisional pole as Aston Martin struggles

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With various PH staff high-tailing it to Le Mans as we speak, the few of us left here at PH HQ are picking mournfully over press releases and images as they come in from the event. Still, it could be worse, we could have proper jobs...

In case you haven't got access to the wires, here's the latest (lightly edited excerpt) from Aston Martin, who continue to press home their point that this year's race is all part of the AMR-One's er, 'development process':

"Aston Martin Racing continued their preparations for the Le Mans 24 Hours in the first free-practice and night-time qualifying session at the Circuit de la Sarthe today.

"During the two sessions, the two Aston Martin Racing petrol-powered LMP1 prototypes continued their extremely ambitious development programme as the team builds towards its first 24-hour race with the open-cockpit AMR-One.

"With the project signed off in September last year, the team was fully aware of the daunting task ahead, but it was deemed important to run in front of the thousands of fans from all over the world who support the marque.

"Both cars were run conservatively in order to evaluate their continued development. Christian Klien, (A) Stefan Mücke (D) and Darren Turner (GB), in the 007 car, reported very positively on AMR-One's handling and balance. The data-gathering exercise in what is the first year of the AMR-One programme included aerodynamic set-up work, as well as fuel-consumption and tyre-pressure testing. Towards the end of the night session, 007 incurred an engine problem which is being investigated overnight.

"The sister 009 car, driven by Adrian Fernandez (MX), Andy Meyrick (GB) and Harold Primat (CH), experienced a minor oil-system problem, but the car was ready again for the start of the first night-time qualifying session between 22:00 and midnight.

"The two-hour session gave the team further time to evaluate the cars and the set-up for the race.

"Aston Martin Racing Chairman David Richards said: "We always knew this weekend was going to be challenging given the limited testing to date. We are learning something every lap we put on the cars and we hope that things become a little easier as the weekend progresses. But, knowing Le Mans, that is somewhat unlikely!"

Mr McNish - oil-fired up...

Things are a bit more upbeat at Audi, where PH's favourite Scotsman (this weekend) Allan McNish is gunning for another victory. Here's the relevant snippet:

"The new diesel-engined Audi of Allan McNish set the fourth fastest time in the opening qualifying session for this weekend's Le Mans 24 Hours last night (WED).

"The Scotsman, who shares the Audi R18 TDI with co-drivers Dindo Capello (Italy) and Tom Kristensen (Denmark), set a personal fastest time for their car of 3mins 28.301secs, an average speed of over 146mph around the 8.47-mile circuit. Frenchman Stéphane Sarrazin (Peugeot) sits on provisional pole-position (3:27.033) for the 79th running of France's annual twice-around-the-clock race.

"I put in a good, clean, tidy lap early in the session just after 10pm but the times are very close - it's nip and tuck between Peugeot and us [Audi]," commented McNish who finished third in last year's Le Mans race.

"Each Audi had a specific programme to undertake and we've made steps forward. There are two more qualifying sessions but we're looking towards the race as opposed out-and-out qualifying."

"The similar "factory" entered "closed cockpit" 3.7-litre, V6 turbo diesel engined Audi R18 TDI sportscars of Marcel Fässler (Switzerland)/André Lotterer (Germany)/Benoît Treluyer (France) plus 2010 Le Mans winners Timo Bernhard (Germany)/Romain Dumas (France)/Mike Rockenfeller (Germany) set the second (3:27.939) and third (3:27.949) fastest times respectively in the opening two hour time trials staged in dry weather conditions.

"Two, two-hour qualifying sessions continue this evening."

Peugeot hasn't graced the PH HQ inbox with a press release yet, but we know there's bound to be one out there somewhere detailing Stephane Sarrazin's provisional pole-snatch from the first qualifying session. His 3m 27.033 was nine-tenths quicker than the fastest Audi.

In case you're stuck in Blighty like yours truly, you may like to know that Audi is streaming live race coverage here - apparently with onboard footage from the three R18 TDIs, telemetry data, and two hourly race updates. We're almost glad to be stuck at home!

[E21_Ross]

watched most of this last night and was good to see these cars out. most looking forward to the GT category, has some fantastic competition this year with the M3's, 911's, 458's, corvettes etc. should be a good fight!! LMP1 will obviously be Audi or Peugeot but it should make for good watching!

bring on more quali tonight!!

[ukaskew]

The Aston doesn't need to be quick, they could just get Mucke to run everyone else off the road computer game style. It's not as though he will have a racing licence next week anyway.

[hornetrider]

Erm, as per motorsport forum guidelines, should you not be entertaining titles with no spoilers in the title?

[Zed Ed]

ukaskew said:

The Aston doesn't need to be quick, they could just get Mucke to run everyone else off the road computer game style. It's not as though he will have a racing licence next week anyway.

Not to late for them to raid the parts bin and stick a diesel engine in

[Chris-R]

hornetrider said:

Erm, as per motorsport forum guidelines, should you not be entertaining titles with no spoilers in the title?

OK - we won't tell you who won until Monday at the earliest...

(Actually you do make a fair point, but it's tricky with homepage 'news' articles requiring relevant headlines.)

[hornetrider]

Understandable, and top bombing on the title change

[RTH]

Nominations for the ugliest looking car in the race. And for the best looking?

[Oddball RS]

Best? Rebellion Lola?

[lankyarcher]

ukaskew said:

The Aston doesn't need to be quick, they could just get Mucke to run everyone else off the road computer game style. It's not as though he will have a racing licence next week anyway.

Quite rightly too! That's a shocking piece of revenge/driving....

[MattDell]

Chris, I guess your ferry ticket still hasn't arrived yet either?

[Jag-D]

Let's hope Peugeot don't piss it all up the wall again!

[marcosgt]

Go home Aston, save yourself the embarrassment...

M.

[iva cosworth]

ukaskew said:

The Aston doesn't need to be quick, they could just get Mucke to run everyone else off the road computer game style. It's not as though he will have a racing licence next week anyway.

I read about that in Motorsport News ,he claimed not to have seen the Nissan and took

his usual line into Stowe .

[VladD]

iva cosworth said:

ukaskew said:

The Aston doesn't need to be quick, they could just get Mucke to run everyone else off the road computer game style. It's not as though he will have a racing licence next week anyway.

I read about that in Motorsport News ,he claimed not to have seen the Nissan and took

his usual line into Stowe .

The video footage would suggest otherwise, unless he's claiming that a Nissan GTR is too small to spot on a clear racetrack?

[marcosgt]

iva cosworth said:

ukaskew said:

The Aston doesn't need to be quick, they could just get Mucke to run everyone else off the road computer game style. It's not as though he will have a racing licence next week anyway.

I read about that in Motorsport News ,he claimed not to have seen the Nissan and took

his usual line into Stowe .

For such a blatant lie, they should double his ban to 2 years...

M.

[JW911]

"Good handling and balance".

Euphimism for "slow".

[caine70]

The new regs have made the diesels a lot slower but Aston Martin are gonna need all the luck they can get!

[E21_Ross]

caine70 said:

The new regs have made the diesels a lot slower but Aston Martin are gonna need all the luck they can get!

if they finish, pescarolo will come 1st for the petrols i reckon. diesels are much slower but they're currently 10+ seconds ahead of the nearest aston. aston don't have a chance of beating every diesel IMO. Audi have gone sub 3:26 now and are currently on pole. not on bloody tv though until the next session which starts in 45mins!

is there any news on the robert dumas Audi R18 tdi? i'm guessing it's going to be running tonight!?

[Vintageseekers]

Just can't get excited about Diesels....I know they're good, huge torque and improved MPG, but still. Might as well have electric cars and call it Scalextric electric car racing game.

Where's the magic gone?

[papercup]

Vintageseekers said:

Just can't get excited about Diesels....I know they're good, huge torque and improved MPG, but still. Might as well have electric cars and call it Scalextric electric car racing game.

Where's the magic gone?

+1

I went a few years ago and can confirm that the diesels are dull as ditchwater.

Corvette's sounded wonderful. You can rely on the yanks for a nice sounding motor