1st qualifying: Peugeot 1st but Audi takes a hit..

This was the first full qualifying session and it will begin to possibly affect grid positions. There is a chance of rain tomorrow (Thursday) so it was important that teams posted some competitive times as well as making sure all their drivers had qualified for the race.

Three teams will have their work cut out to make tomorrows final qualifying. Most important of which is Audi. They have a big repair job getting the #1 Audi Sport Team Joest R18 TDI back into shape after an unfortunate accident when Romain Dumas came upon the stricken #60 Gulf AMR Middle East Aston Martin broadside across the track in the dark. Neither Dumas not Goethe were injured but the red flags came out and the session was delayed. Right at the end of the session the #42 Strakka Racing HPD ARX 01D had a major 'off' at the Dunlop Curves with Nick Leventis driving. It was a big impact that ripped a large part of the rear of the car off, but Leventis was OK.

The traditional 'see who can get to the top of qualifying' battle looked to be well fired up but unlike free practice it was the #8 Peugeot Sport Total Peugeot 308 that emerged 0.906 secs ahead of the nearest Audi. Dr Ulrich however told everybody that Audi were not really trying and there was more to come and that Audi were not worried..after all they did fill the next three places ahead of Peugeot.

Despite crashing out the #42 Strakka Racing car leads LMP2 ahead of the #26 Signatech Nissan.in 3rd place is the Team Oreca Matmut Oreca 03 Nissan. In LM GTE Pro category BMW lead with the #56 BMW GT ahead of the ##51 AF Corse Srl Ferrari 458 Italia driven by ex Formula star Giancarlo Fisichella and then the normally laid back American Corvette team who tend to take a while to 'warm up'. In LM GTE Am the stunningly painted #81 Flying Lizard Motorsport Porsche 911 RSR is just behind the similar Labre Competition car #70.

It was a thrilling session spoiled by damage to two front running cars ..

Has it really been a year since the last Le Mans?

I suspect if you look back over the years there is a chance we have said this before “ Has it really been a year since the last Le Mans?” I have checked the calendar and it really was a year ago!

Your CA team are nearly all in place, just a chap called Steve Carr is coming tomorrow. But we have had one bit of bad news, Janice Minton, isn’t at all well and for the first time in years she won’t be with us, she is resting in UK. Hubby Paul is coming down to look after things. We will miss her. Over the years she has become an integral part of Le Mans. Starting in the late eighties with Radio Le Mans in the pit lane with a microphone. It fair to say that very few people could bounce upto a team manager, who looked very stressed, and ask if the black runny stuff under the car was important... and get away with it .. she could even get the grandstands cheering ! Then in 2003, when looking after Nasamax, she won the Laureat du Prix de la Communication’. That is an important honour awarded to the top PR team each year. She is having a tough time and we all wish her well.

To be fair not a lot happens here on Tuesday. The ‘Pesage’ ( weighing and checking) is all done and dusted. The Peugeot drivers all arrived on eco-friendly bikes having ridden about 130 kms from Chartres. It rained on Sunday but by Monday Le Place de Jacobins was heaving and maybe even busier that last year. You will see from the ACO website that Tony and Le Grand Fromage actually found lots to write about and plenty of drivers to interview. They couldn’t stop talking and thinking about Miss Le Mans 2011, who is apparently about 7’0” tall, made up entirely of legs and gorgeous. We will try and find a picture for you ( and me!)

There was a whiff of a rumour that one of the ‘petrol’ teams was going to formally protest about the diesels but what could have been a hot story never happened. Pity really because that would have been quite a lively debate.

There are few question marks hovering around the Aston Martins. The problem seems to lie with their engines or rather lack of engines that retrun to component form under pressure. (Like getting out of the pit lane! They are having all kinds of problems and they reckon that starting on the same lap as everybody else might be a step in the right direction!

The Oreca Swiss Hytech Hybrid N°5 was leaking some kind of fluid , maybe battery acid. Otherwise it was all pretty non-controversial..

Bring it on !!

Le Mans Test day, Sunday 24th April 2011

At last we have now some track action!! At 09:00hrs local time the free practice session got underway. It rained during the night so the condition of the track is difficult to judge but there are 54 cars due to go out.

The new fangled Oreca Swiss Hy Tech-Hybrid thingie has found the ultimate way of saving fuel (and tyre wear!) .. it fell apart as soon they turned the ignition key; so it has not yet left it’s pit garage .. not good in ‘Endurance Racing’ terms.

The balmy summer weather came to an end at about 10:30hrs local time when it rained somewhere out on the circuit and the bulk of the cars gave up and went back into their nice warm pit garages..

We Brits thrive on being ‘plucky’ but even so the Aston Martin works lads must be fed up. The problem was that the #009 Aston Martin Racing AMR One engine failed before it managed any laps, so we won’t be seeing it out today which is a major set back for the team.. It will be a long drive back to Banbury. On a more upbeat note the #007 car is up and running so the team will be able to gather some useful data for the main race.

Now it is time for lunch so everything grinds gently to a halt while the police all around Le Mans and the circuit have a bite to eat .. but now without a glass of wine to wash it down.. Whatever next!

Not sure what the morning proved really .. In LMP1 the Audis are running 1st 2nd and 3rd ahead of two of the Peugeots. The front runners are about 4 secs a lap slower than last year’s race-pace despite having lost nearly two litres of engine capacity. The #16 Pescarolo Judd is leading the petrol race and is running 8th and 9.7 secs behind the the Audis. So any attempts there have been to help the petrol cars catch up seemed to have failed.

LMP 2 was looking rather more competitive with the first five cars separated by six seconds. The current leader is the #41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek Nissan.
LMGTE Pro is currently led by the Hankook shod Ferrari 458 Italia . Andy Priaulx is doing well with the BMW M3 GT in 3rd just behind the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia.
LMGTE Am is led by the #50 Labre Competition Chevrolet C6-ZR1 which is ahead of one of the #52 AF Corse Ferrari 430. The Gulf AMR Middle East Aston Martin Vantage is 3rd.So, no big surprises!

Had to smile when the charming Marcel Fässler arrived back in the pits having spun the #2 Audi in quite a big way into a gravel trap at Mulsanne. This was the first ‘Spin with a Fin’ at Le Mans... when asked if the new fin had made a big difference he told us he had no idea.. everything happened so fast he couldn’t tell the difference. But he said that the car did miss the wall and will be fine for the afternoon session.

Oh dear ..The other Aston has just returned its engine to component form so now the whole team can load up and go home early.

Still no sign of the #5 Hybrid either .. that means they have saved even more fuel and maybe even the World by now.. But then with about two hours it came alive ...the Hybrid lives! After a couple of unsuccessful attempts to a) start and then b) get out of its pit garage it was up, up and away with a glowing green future ahead ... for a whole lap and then it went back into the pit garage! Well.. it was a start ! It went on do a couple more laps either with or without KERS running we are not sure. We heard later that the system was deployed briefly. So there were reasons to be cheerful?

It is easy to ignore the LM GTE classes with all the emphasis being placed on the Audi.v.Peugeot tussle. The early indications are that the ACO have got the ‘Pro’ category about right with three different marques in the top six places and around two seconds separating them! That can’t be bad.

So while we are sober what are our thoughts on the race? From today’s showing it is unusual that the Audis have been consistently quicker that the Peugeots. This is a bit of a surprise since Peugeot have tended to be alarmingly quick in the past. Even a traditional last ditch lap from Sarrazin couldn’t nail the leading #3 Audi, but it did get upto 3rd splitting the R18s.

Lets face it the petrol cars still don’t stand a chance .. the quickest one is the #16 Pescarolo and it is lying 8th . Judging by today’s performance it doesn’t look like the Hybrid will be much of a threat either!

In LMP2 the Nissan powered cars look to have the edge which is a bit strange after the HPD ( Honda) cars went so well last year. In 2010 plenty of LMP2 saw the chequered flag so reliability may not be quite such an issue as in some years.

LM GTE Pro.. Now this looks good! The new Ferrari 458 Italia looks like a serious racer with some rapid drivers. Reliability may now be a thing of the past for the Italians so they will be dangerous. This year BMW are taking this a bit seriously with their BMW M3 GT. They look good, they have a powerful set of drivers and they did win at Sebring. There are Porsches lurking in the middle order but the BMW and Ferrari do look a bit dangerous.

LM GTE Am .. this is all a bit murky really because we don’t know the driver line up and there are not all that many cars to choose from. The Chevrolet Corvette knows how to win at Le Mans but the Ferrari 430 is now a very well sorted package .. I think Ferrari will do it, purely because there are rather a lot of them..

So..Bring it on .. . see you in June ..

So here we are at Le Mans testing and it is day two. The sun is still burning bright and no sign of rain yet. No sign of much happening either! There is rain on the horizon for Sunday. We have to concede that things have yet to reach a fever pitch of activity and tension, far from it! There was a flurry of excitement at about 10:00hrs when we heard an engine start... it was a Nissan we believe.. then at around 10:25hrs we heard, maybe the same engine, rev up to what we guess was perhaps a staggering 1,500 rpm.. Wow!

Another major media event is the revealing of the ‘new’ Audi colour scheme. This really is exciting ( ahem!) because we wonder if they re-sprayed the cars overnight and if they will look dramatically different or are they same colours we saw when the cars were unloaded.. our team of happy snappers are poised to pounce. (we also have a Dulux pantone chart handy to check this out.) OK .. they are back.. looking at the car sideways on #3 Audi America car is silver on top and black underneath, #1 and #2 are the factory cars are the other way round with black on top and silver underneath , a bit like the original 1999 coupé.

Even better news is that the coffee machine is working to day and the fluid that emerges is at least making a nodding acquaintance with maybe as many as one coffee bean.. so things are progressing.

Watching scrutineering .. bearing in mind some people have paid €10 ( about 2.5 pints or local beer) to watch the ‘drama unfold’ they could have made it a bit more thrilling. Maybe set it to music.. on ice ...with Torville and Dean assisted by Jack Dee telling jokes?

About the only car that is missing is the #49 LMP2 Oak Racing Pescarolo Judd , we assume this was the car that spontaneously combusted in Oak's Technoparc workshops. We wish the unlucky mechanic who got 2nd degree burns a speedy recovery. The #75 Porsche was never going to be here . It will need to be rebuilt or completely replaced after the Le Castellet start line chaos. About all that survived was an ash tray and a couple of wheel nuts. It seems that Porsche was the only car written off in the accident.
Up until last week it was rumoured that the Peugeot Hybrid might have put in an appearance.. it hasn’t. So being a wee bit cynical we do wonder if this was a PR driven gesture to the green lobby or maybe a chance to see how other Hybrids are performing before their own car breaks cover.

The build-up goes on with various rather contrived photo opportunities up and down the pit lane as the teams gather their publicity shots ..

So we need to sign off now,, we have discovered that all the bars in Arnage seem to grind to an unseemly halt rather earlier than back home in ‘Blighty’ ... so if you will excuse us we are off !!

TESTING APRIL 22 2011

JOX JOTTINGS

TESTING APRIL 22 2011

As great Victor Meldrew might have said ‘I don’t believe it ...we are back at Le Mans already”! The sun was out, the sky was blue... weather here .. wish you were lovely!

You have slim team looking after things this weekend “Le Grand Fromage” is bravely leading from the front and your two smaller Dairy Lea portions, Jock and Tony are bringing up the rear scribbling furiously.

It was a great run down and a beautiful evening back at Chateau Tortoise.. it has been so warm that Titine (the tortoise) woke up early from hibernation. Our host JJ is far too friendly and generous and his good lady wife laid on a massive feast. We cant imagine why on earth we feel a bit fuzzy .. could it have been the beer, Pernod (Lots) white wine, red wine and then pink wine that did some damage ...naaaah!

If you have never been to testing it is all a bit surreal.. it is a bit like the party either hasn’t started or maybe finished early. Wide open spaces ... tumble weed blowing across the dusty car park ...virtually no people except the hardcore nutters who have their expensive cameras with huge egos all ready to go and have even invested €10 to diligently watch nothing going on.. which is a little odd, mind you there are around 154 drivers here. Away from the circuit bars are open and quiet...

All the same, the reason we are here is that there are due to be around 54 cars out testing on Sunday. Today and Saturday they are making a start on scrutineering.. as usual the more ‘public’ scrutineering will carry on in June, down town at the Place des Jacobins as before.

Those of you in the know, and that probably means all of you.. will know that there has been a big shake up in the regs for this year, so here goes for a potted version...

The ACO have resisted major changes to the Regs since 2007 so, brace yourselves, it is ‘all change’ for 2011, the 79th running of The 24 Hours of Le Mans. The pressure started to build up and the ACO realised that environmental pressures were building up and the new buzz words all start with ‘eco’.. we thought this would open the flood gates to all that new fangled hybrid stuff!! Not quite ... ‘they’ are here and ‘it’ will race .. just two cars so far and only one will be back in June. There was a rumour that Peugeot would bring their hybrid, but it would seem they are going to keep that under wraps a little longer.. More about Hybrids later.

Starting with Le Mans Prototype One.. LMP1. This year these will all new cars, with the exception of the Rebellion Racing Lola 10/60 that ran in 2011 specification last year , since the ‘old’ LMP1 cars became obsolete at the end of 2010. This is another reason why testing this year is so important. As far as specification is concerned it is down to the manufacturer to decide whether they choose to have a roof or leave the cockpit open. There is some debate whether a roof is a good thing or bad thing. A roof maybe more aerodynamic, it may stop buffeting and the driver feels more secure. On the other hand they are heavier and the doors fall off plus they have to run air conditioning so the jury is out for the moment!
The engines are now nearer the LMP2 specification and for petrol powered cars they will be 3.4 litres for the normally aspirated, non turbo, cars and 2.0 litres for turbo charged engines. The engine size for the diesel cars is reduced from 5.5 litres to 3.7 litres. I wonder if that will slow them up..probably not!

Many of the changes in LMP2 have been introduced to try and keep costs under control. This an interesting concept for the less well off amongst us...the price of the car is now pegged, and the price of the body and engine fixed but however quickly you say it, at €345,000 (excluding the cost of the engine which has to cost no more than €75,000) is still quite a lot of money. Or a modest house to you and me. The engines are now similar in many ways to the old GT2 power units and have to be based upon an engine that can be found in a ‘production’ car. The maximum size of a normally aspirated engine is 5.0 litres with a maximum of eight cylinders. The turbo charged versions are limited to 3.2 litres. Diesel engines are not permitted in LMP2. We wonder why that is.. it may be something to do with the saga of LMP1. It is possible to either have a roof or an open cockpit.

These changes mean that the engines are now being supplied by some of the major manufacturers that we got used to seeing at Le Mans in years gone by ...like BMW, Ford, Honda, Jaguar, Nissan and Toyota. The sharper enthusiast will of course realise that Honda are back this year and they may have a slight advantage this time since they ran their engines here last year under the then ‘anonymous’ banner of HPD. ( Honda Performance Development). This year the full name appears in the programme.

Remember that Hybrid bit? Well, for 2011 the ACO are encouraging better fuel efficiency and as result we will be seeing two cars here at testing fitted with KERS. (kinetic energy recovery systems). These are #5 Swiss Oreca based Hytech Hybrid and the #23 MIK Corse Zytek Hybrid.. Unlike in Formula One GP racing these are only linked to the throttle and cannot be used independently. The regulations specifically state that a KERS device is intended to decrease fuel consumption and definitely not offer more power.. so a totally different approach to F1. To prove it works the car must be able to travel the entire length of the pit lane here at Le Mans under ‘KERS’ power. We are not sure this is the blindingly brilliant innovation we were looking for.

These changes to the technical regulations should result in the quicker LMP2 cars being very close to the pace of the petrol powered LPM1 cars. The ‘new’ Audi hasn’t run yet in serious competition but will have been out at Spa 1000 km for a pre-Le Mans shake down. .The Peugeot ran at Sebring and got beaten by last year’s car so maybe the petrol .v. diesel debate goes on. Despite all this the future of LMP1 looks secure enough since it gives the major companies a playing field to explore, but what if Audi or Peugeot decide to pull out who would fill the vacuum ?

Look out for GT thoughts later ..