Thursday practice session 22-24 - 13th June 2002

Peter Radcliffe

THE FINAL PRACTICE SESSION.

21.49 The 27 MG will not be out again today as the engine is now going to be replaced with the race engine and the change will not be finished before the session ends.
The Ascari is having a clutch problem and is being worked on by AP technicians.
21.56 The 1 and 3 car head the queue to leave
21.58 The truck that has just returned the 27 MG tries to join the Queue! Is he on Qualifiers?
22.00 The Audis lead out the field, the next 30 minutes could be very interesting.
22.01 One of the Reynards 28 goes straight on at one of the chicanes on the Mulsanne and stops. No lights and is now going round without lights.
22.08 Lammers does a 3.32.734 to go 5th. Sarrazin, Kristensen and Beretta all make slight improvements in times but not position.
Enge has done a 3.54.091 in the Prodrive Ferrari
22.13 Van De Poele improves the Bentley time but not position.
22.14 The two Dallaras go out together with new tyres on, to tow each other to a time, Minassian replaced Sarrazin.
22.17 Krumm does a 3.30.801 to complete an Audi top three and Lupberger has improved the Ascari time by a second
22.19 Auberlen improves the 12 Panoz time and is now 16th
Morgan has gone faster to 4.27.1 after three laps by Stanton and Hyde is about to go out.
22.24 Lammers is out again in the Dome
22.28 The Bentley improves to a 3.35.449 and is now 8th.
22.34 The 26 MG has now just about completed its qualification then Anthony Reid will take out the car on qualifiers.
22.36 the Riley & Scott improves its time but not place but the Works Courage is going very slowly on the Mulsanne.
Night Hawk goes third in 675 class for MG top three.
22.39 The Prodrive Ferrari is going very slowly
22.42 Bentley goes a little faster but stays 11th 5.5 seconds from pole
22.43 Herta is off at the Ford Chicane with smoke and flame from the car, looks like mechanical.
22.50 Red flag probably for the Panoz. The 5 Audi has not been out in this session.
23.00 The session restarts and we now have the Bouchut and Kumpen Viper displacing the Corvettes, These could be a good bet for the GTS class if the Prodrive Ferrari breaks, it seems that the gearbox is the weakest link but can be changed in about 20 minutes.
23.18 the Morgan has done 4.16.847 and is now well qualified in front of 2 Ferrari 360 the Alphand Porsche and the Spyker and its been done by Steve Hyde in the dark, just six seconds behind the leading Porsche
23.25 Herr Ulrich has said that the Goh Audi did not flip but it is reputed that Dalmas has said the car did flip; the story goes on and on.
23.30 Into the last half hour and no signs of fast times and not many expected now.
23.43 the Bentley cuts another fraction from its time and has followed this with another similar lap.
24.00 Qualifying is over and the British fans have much to look forward to, the works MG 6th and 12th. The Bentley is 11th and the Ascari 14th all within eight seconds of the pole.
The Prodrive Ferrari is well clear at the top of the GT class and the PK Sport and particularly the Morgan have shown well today in the GT class. The baddies have beaten the hero by a couple of places. We will post a more detailed revue tomorrow with the stories of tonight's practice.

Club-Arnage images from qualifying

For timing and scoring, go to the official ACO site

Copyright© 2002 Club Arnage








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