Coming into the circuit today we got the impression that there are an awful lot of people here this year, mostly British it seems. There is certain exuberance in the air .. for example a cheery soul was waving down any cars that looked even a bit interesting and suggesting they smoke their tyres off up the road to the cheers of hundreds of hooligans from the camp sites lining the road. This morning there are some spectacular black marks all over the road and verges ! Another passing observation is that there cannot possible by a single Lotus Seven or Caterham left in the UK, they are all down here. Anyway, back to the plot ...
The two Toyotas are looking pretty impressive, no doubt our chums from Japan would like a result here, they have invested in this race in the biggest possible way, a strong driver line up, a massive pit presence, massive hospitality village (small town ?), a pretty slick PR machine and so on. Their pit and paddock lay out has to be seen to be believed. Slightly lower key are BMW, they found a bit of pace in the night session on Thursday and bumped the #6 Mercedes into fourth place. The BMW was mighty rapid during the dark session. As you now know Mercedes must be in a spot of bother at present, will they pull the other cars out or will they risk yet another ‘flip over’ from one of them ? Not a decision we would like to make after the massive investment Mercedes have made this year. There has been a suggestion that they cut their losses, talk to air traffic control and go flying at the near by airport rather than the circuit and maybe seek sponsorship from say Virgin Airlines ! Panoz have been a bit low key to date, they have had a variety of problems, mostly not very serious but they are short of running time.
All the same the #12 Panoz LMP driven by Brabham, Bernard and Leitzinger is still sitting 5th on the grid relying on a time set days ago ! The other car is not so well placed, #11 driven by O’Connell, Magnussen and Angelli , is way back in 17th spot with a bit of work to do ... mind you they are blindingly quick and time is on their side, but will the car
last ? Hopefully they will still be running in the early hours and keep us all awake with the noise, as they did last year. Audi seem to freely admit that they are ‘a day late and a dollar short’, in other words they started building the car rather late in the day, so testing was all a bit rushed .. mind you it is a stunning bit of kit and must win the pre race beauty contest. All the same 9th on the grid on your first visit to Le Mans isn’t too shabby. It will be interesting to see how they develop during the race.
What has been going on in GTS ? Frankly not a lot ... great news for all you Viper fans out there .. they have cleaned up big time ... the first five , yes five , places on the grid all belong to Viper GTS-R’s .. not bad ...
Oreca are in control, they have their #51 car on pole with Beretta,Wendlinger and Dupuy, behind them is the #52 car of Archer, Bell and Duez, another very strong Oreca Team. Third is #55, one of the Paul Belmondo Racing cars driven by Clerico, Lagniez and Martinolle. Oreca are really going to have be very careless to lose this race, strong teams, strong cars, excellent record so far this year and we still seriously doubt that the Viper is anywhere near the limits of its performance, hence hardly breaking into a sweat.
Unlike the drivers of course who are looking at a very tiring 24 hours with monstrous cockpit temperatures due to that V10 throbbing away a foot or two ahead of them. Porsche are still at Le Mans you will be relieved to hear, just about, their best car is lying 6th and it is the #65 Chereau,Goueslard and Yver car. Normally Porsche would rely on a steady pace and the others falling by the wayside, we are not sure the Vipers will oblige ! The cheery bulk of Hugh Chamberlain has one of cars in the leading bunch ahead of the Porsches, this is the #56 car of Amorin,Hugenholtz Seiler car. The other Chamberlain Viper had a spot of bother with a fuel leak on Thursday and Hugh admits they were very fortunate the car didn’t go up in flames. Christian Vann qualified in the other car while they sorted this out. All the same the #57 car is 8th in GTS and poised to gobble up the two Porsches in their way !
The LMGT class hasn’t really worked this year, with only four cars getting through pre qualifying it was never going to be busy at the best of times ! The next blow was that neither of the Porsche 993 RSR’s were on the pace, despite trying very hard. The result was that the #83 MacQuillan car didn’t make the cut, a pity really since he is one of the every few genuine ‘privateers’ still racing in GT’s. They might still squeeze in if the ACO weaken but at the time of writing it looks a bit unlikely. The two new Porsche GT3R’s look rather impressive, they will effectively be racing each other and presumably the remaining Porsche 993 RSR of Perrier, Ricci and Nourry, despite it being about 14 seconds a lap slower than the 996 GT3’s. This may not prove all that riveting but we will be keeping an eye on them all the same. If a Porsche finishes it will be on the podium !
Predictions ? Well .. Toyota look to be a bit invincible but it did all go wrong last year and tears were shed, it could of course happen again. If Chrysler manage to lose GTS it would be a miracle and as we said Porsche will win LMGT if they finish the race ... this year might not be the year to bet on outsiders, but cast your mind back to that astonishing performance last year by The EMKA McLaren !