Just as the final night session started we began to gather a bit more detail about that Mercedes accident. It seems the car may well have flipped over at high speed, remember the Porsche GT1 of Dalmas ? Anyway the team are being mighty cagey about it all, the crumpled car came back on a transporter (still with its custom made dust sheet all over it) and at the last sighting they were moving it with a serious amount of manpower from the recovery truck to a covered lorry. Maybe the tub survived and the team have all tonight, all day Friday and part of Saturday to rebuild the car ... but have all the drivers qualified and would the team want to run with just two drivers ?
Just because it is dark doesn’t mean these guys all that much slower ... they know the track, they know the braking points so why let night-time slow you up ? Sooner them than me.
There really is something rather special about Le Mans at night, the atmosphere is electric !
The weather forecast for Saturday and Sunday is a bit moody, maybe rain, maybe the odd thunder storm, all of which will liven things up a bit ! In this session BMW #17 is possibly running in ‘race trim’ and it is doing 3.38.531 secs , it is worth noting that the #1 Toyota did a 3.38.909 ... interesting !
We have a snippet from Panoz, apparently Jan Magnussen isn’t all that happy with the car, nothing specific but maybe why the car hasn’t done much. He is looking forward to getting back into the #11 Panoz early in this session and clawing back from a lowly 17th on the grid.
The other Panoz may be in a spot of bother in the engine room, despite messages to the contrary from their PR machine ! Is this why we haven’t seen much of the car to date ?
The #12 Panoz is still 5th on the grid relying on its times from yesterday.
GTS there has been a minor change, Viper #55 has moved into 3rd place ahead of #53.
The #65 Chereau 911 GT2 driven by Goueslard and Chereau is 5th and leads the ‘rest’. Just behind him is the #67 car of Jarier, Lafon, von Gartzen.
We now have more concrete about the Merecedes mayhem, information is that it flipped over onto its roof for about 200 meters, maybe because the under tray fell off, then it flew back into the air, then back onto its wheels and finally into the Armco .. this may well be the truth since it came from ‘an anonymous source close to Mercedes' !
Another nice little snippet .. a member of The Rook Porsche team was clocked at a modest
247 kph (154 mph !) in his road car , this earned him a fine in the region of 5,000 FF ! This is apparently not the record, but very close, he missed that by about 2 kph, he must be furious and broke !
Back to practice ... well not much is happening really, we suspect cars are running in race trim with race engines and probably a fair bit of fuel on board to test out suspension settings and handling. In GT3 #81 is on pole, this is the Alzen, Riccitelli, Wolleck car.
As the clock moves towards 23:00 hrs ... the pundits reckon that the qualifying action is probable over, the spectacle certainly isn’t, the grandstands are full of flag waving fans and the atmosphere is very cheerful !
Viper problems, the Chamberlain Viper of ChristianVann, car #57, is stuck out on the circuit with a possible fuel leak and a couple of mechanics have gone out to help. They can’t work on the car but they can advise Christian from a distance.
#62 Roock Porsche arrived back on a flat bed truck after having spun and stalled , we are not sure who was driving at the time. We can confirm that their yesterday’s times were disallowed due to their turbos over boosting.
While it was all a bit quiet we took a look at the paddock area where the teams have their hospitality all laid out. It is an incredible sight, none of this motor-home with an awning business .. Oh No ! ... Toyota have built a housing estate, with an upstairs and down stairs, flushing toilets, a garden , the lot .... like wise Mercedes have a modest architectural masterpiece the size of a small town, made up of tinted glass and steel tubing ... mind you they are catering for teams of mechanics, drivers, media and friends and they have been doing it since last Saturday !
The GT3 993 RSR Porsches are still doing their best to try and qualify, if not they will have still driven hundreds of miles out on the track and hopefully enjoyed themselves. Gerard MacQuillan has had a troublesome Le Mans, having got an entry for his GT2 911 and the GT3 car he was let down by his engine suppliers who delivered the GT2 engine too late to get it into the car and tested. He is at least 70 bhp down the Porsche 996 GT3’s.
Interesting to note that Mercedes #6 is quickest car out there in the dark by a fair margin. Not quite sure what their race strategy is but it could make for some interesting tactics during the race.
With just half and hour to go we can either look forward to sensational last gasp series of quick laps, or more likely the cars will simply get out there to sort out any minor niggles, aiming the lights, getting accustomed to the dark and so on. We don’t imagine that Audi are all that happy with a 9th for #7 and 11th for #8, maybe they are saving themselves for the race. They admit that the car was built a bit late in the day and the team were short of testing.
Panoz have also been sorting problems, apparently none of them all that serious, after all the #12 car is still 5th. The #11 car of Magnussen, O’Connell and Angelli is not happy way down in 17th spot.
GTS really hasn’t changed much throughout practice, still a Viper benefit and it will be a truly astonishing state of affairs if a Viper doesn’t win GTS ! Equally GT is a bit quiet with
#81 and #80 leading the class with #83 and #84 struggling to stay in the event. Mind you #60 the 911 GT2 of Ishihara, Iketani and Jurasz is down there amongst them , it would be ironic if they got a race rather then the Porsche 933 RSR’s !
With 15 minutes to go the #17 BMW driven by Jorg Muller banged in a remarkable 3.35.857
which was the fastest lap in the dark to date. It may be that it was on very sticky tyres, if not then it should be able to do these times in the race.
Word about the Christian Vann Viper #57 that was stuck out on the circuit, this put Christain Vann into spot of bother because he hadn’t qaulified in the dark. The organisers have luckily allowed Christian out in #56 car to qualify.
Andy Wallace arrived back a bit hot and sweaty after his drive in Audi #18 and they have sorted out their gear box problems, but it is all a bit late in the day, but they need a bit more time. But they seemed pretty cheerful about life. It has been a tough few days for the teams and the work has begun to pay off.
At a press conference after qualifying Mercedes confirm the rumours we had heard, the only exception seems to be that they reckon it didn’t travel on its roof it arrived back on it wheels and then hit the Armco. Mark Webber is fine and up and about , stiff but other wise OK apparently. Mark will be fit enough to race. They are going to try and get the car ready for the race
The Chequered flag went out at midnight and qaulifying was over. The pattern was set early on, yesterday really, the two Toyotas,#1 and #2 are on the front row, behind them are the #17 BMW and #6 Mercedes.
In GTS the Vipers really have cleaned up, rather as expected, it is a monstrous bit of kit and you have wonder just how hard they are really trying. #51 is on pole, beside that is #52, #55, #53 and #56. The leading GT2 Porsche is #65.
GT3 remains a bit of a mystery, will the organisers let the slower 993 RSR’s to run ? But the two Porsche 996 GT3 are running fine but not under much pressure of course !