Event Features
24 Hours of Le Mans Test Day Report
By Text: Jim Sykes and George Achorn
Jun 6, 2007, 07:54

As we approach the running of the 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans, the thoughts on everyone’s minds revolve around the battle of the diesels. Audi vs. Peugeot is undoubtedly the story of the race, with Peugeot returning to the historic French circuit with a brand new diesel-powered prototype to take on the proven prowess of Audi and their R10 TDI, which remains unbeaten in its class on both sides of the ocean. Will the Peugeot have the speed to compete with Audi? If so, will they also have the durability to go with it? Audi has proven that it has both and remains the king of the hill daring someone to knock them down. Those questions would begin to be answered at the preliminary test day held two weeks before the big race. Lets see how it all started to play out.

Some changes have been made to the track since the previous year, so the fastest lap turned last year was poised to be broken. Changes around the Tertre Rouge turn will allow the cars to enter the Mulsanne straight faster than the previous layout.

When the green flag flew to start the first practice session at 9 am local time, the drama began to unfold in P1. Throughout the day, the Audis, Pescarolos and Peugeots proceeded to hover around the fastest time of the day. The #16 Pescarolo Judd started the session with a fast time of 3:35.121 and set the stage for the day.

At 10:26 the red flag came out for the P1 car from Courage Competition when it crashed heavily in the Porsche Curves with rookie Guillaume Moreau at the wheel. It would take until around 11:00 am for the course to go green again. Though Moreau was not injured badly, the car was not so lucky and would not continue in the practice day.

It wasn’t long after the course went green again from the Courage accident that Frank Biela took the #1 Audi to the top of the charts with a 3:30.899, dropping the #8 Peugeot to second place on the list after Pedro Lamy had taken it to first a bit earlier. So by about the noon hour, all three cars had taken their turn at the top of the charts. As afternoon began, the #1 Audi started going faster and faster as Pirro continued to shake down the car. The pole position in 2006 was 3:30.446 and Pirro had it in his sights as he dropped Biela’s time down to 3:30.605.

With about four hours left in the day, some concern came over the Peugeot fans as the #8 car shredded a tire in the Porsche Curves. As it returned to the pits, smoke was coming from the engine compartment. The team immediately wheeled the car into the garage to evaluate the damage, which looked serious at the time. Tire problems also plagued the Pescarolo team as the #16 car also lost a tire causing Romain Dumas to use an escape road when the left rear tire blew. As if there wasn’t enough drama on the day.

Then, as the tires started to become part of the story, the #7 Peugeot driven by Minassian was able to lay down the exact same time as the Audi R10, a 3:30.605 and leaving the #16 Pescarolo in third a bit more than a second back at 3:31.958. Could this be playing out any better? Maybe so, when at just a short time later the #7 Peugeot, now back from its mysterious smoking engine and driven by Lamy, went to the top with a 3:30.224. Only minutes later, Marco Werner put the Audi in the second spot by itself with a 3:30.514.

There they stood for about a half hour before Marco Werner decided to up the ante again, posting a time of 3:29.563 and then within minutes lowering it to a 3:29.064, going over a second faster than anyone had ever gone on the previous track configuration.

Problems persisted for several other of the P1 cars, with the #16 Pescarolo having problems with a drive shaft and with the #14 Racing For Holland Dome having a tire puncture. But the race for the top spot was obviously down to the diesels, as the top gasoline powered car was the #16 Pescarolo down in fifth spot. Was it going to be Audi or Peugeot at the top come the end of the day?

As the day started to wind down, Sebastian Bourdais put his vote in for Peugeot as he laid down a blistering 3:27.180 time, almost two seconds faster than Werner’s time. And not willing to rest on his laurels, he continued to crank off fast laps, laying down a lap just a tenth slower than his fastest and then knocking off one at 3:26.707, almost a half second faster than his fastest.

Audi was not able to answer Bourdais’ time. Pirro was able to get the #1 car down to a 3:28.277, McNish was able to get the #2 Audi down to a 3:28.406 and the #16 Pescarolo managed a 3:28.574.

Peugeot ended the day on top, followed by a pair of Audis and a Pescarolo Judd, all within 2 seconds of each other. Its exactly as we had hoped. Although the diesels are still the class of the field, the Pescarolo showed it had some similar speed and once the race starts to play out, they could be right in there with the rest of the diesel pack.

While all the drama was unfolding in the P1 category, the P2 guys were going about their business for their own race. Unlike the flip flop times of the P1 cars, in P2 the Barazi Epsilon team Zyteks were consistently at the top of the charts, finishing their day with a new track record and, remarkably, with both cars putting in the exact same time, 3:39.106. They went out in the early part of the test day taking the top time and stayed there, knocking 10 full seconds off their times from the beginning to the end today. The only competition they really had was from each other as they exchanged fastest laps a couple times before matching each other.

All did not run smoothly for the team though as they did have a spin at Tertre Rouge early in the day. They were not the only P2 car with troubles though as several cars visited the gravel during the day. The #35 Saulnier Racing Courage spent some time in the gravel early and then had a puncture on the Mulsanne which required them to take almost ten minutes to get back tot he pits. The Noel Del Bello Courage hit the wall at the “karting” curve and looked like it would not be able to return for the day. This put in question the ability of its rookie driver, Vitaly Petrov, to put in the required ten laps.

At the end of the day though, the Barazi Epsilon cars were tied for first, nearly 1.6 seconds ahead of the next car, the Lola of Quifel-ASM and last years winners, the Lola of RML.

In LMGT1, the Aston Martin Corvette Racing battle is almost as anticipated as the battle of the diesels in P1. Corvette racing has owned this class both at Le Mans and in the American Le Mans Series. Aston Martin has shown they have the speed to compete, but bad luck and late race issues have left them off the top step of the podium in recent years. Could this be their year for revenge? They decided not to enter the ALMS in order to concentrate on Le Mans. Will that tactic work?

The Aston Martin of Larbre Competition set the early time of the day at 3:55.020 but that would not stand for long. By mid day, Oliver Gavin had put his #64 Corvette at the top with a time of 3:52.520, which was close to track record from ’06 set by Tomas Enge.

Things had not been looking too good for the Aston Martin #007 car as it was getting a new engine over lunch. However, the #009 car was nipping at the heels of the Corvette with a time of 3:52.851. The #007 car would return in the early afternoon and was immediately on pace with the others and by this time there were five cars within a half second of each other including the Corvettes, Astons and a Saleen.

At close to 4 pm, the #007, new engine under the hood, went to the top of the GT1 charts with a 3:51.498. Tomas Enge put the car there and it was the first time that the Aston topped the charts all day. By the end of the session, Enge had extended his lead to 0.8 seconds by laying down a time of 3:50.848.

This held until about 30 minutes remained when the #63 car of Jan Magnussen put a time down of 3:49.207 to take the lead by 1.6 seconds. That is where they finished. The #63 Corvette, followed by the #007 Aston Martin, the #64 Corvette with a time of 3:51.628 and the #55 Saleen of Team Oreca with a 3:51.721.

Some had wondered whether the Corvette team would be ready considering their lack of competition this year in the American Le Mans Series, but they proved today that they have just as much speed as they ever had and ran the most laps of any of the GT1 competitors today without any problems.

"Some people wondered why we were racing in the American Le Mans Series even though we had no competition, and I think today's result provides a clear answer," said Doug Fehan. "We've done a tremendous amount of work over the winter and early this season, and the testing that we've done with Michelin has been outstanding. The drivers, engineers and mechanics did another exceptional job, and that's one of the reasons why Corvette Racing is successful."

It looks like they are ready for whatever Aston Martin might be able to throw their way.

That leaves us with the LMGT2 class, which, though they aren’t the fastest cars on the track, often will provide some of the best racing you’re likely to see. Several cars enter with high hopes including a couple of American Le Mans Series regulars. Flying Lizard Motorsports has high hopes for the race as do ther rivals from Sebring Risi Competizione, who return to the classic with two Ferrari F430s. Risi has been dominant in the ALMS and Flying Lizard is banking on their experience of the last couple years. Things looked good for Flying Lizard as they took the early fast lap honors with a time of 4:07.857.

As the afternoon session began, the #87 Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari F430 lead the way with a 4:04.635 followed by the #76 IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche with a 4:05.389. Things started to go wrong for the Flying Lizard team as they slowed after leaving the pits and it took them ten minutes to return there. No explanation was given for the slow lap, but they seemed to get things back under control as they went out and laid down the fastest lap of the afternoon at 4:03.400.

The #87 Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari that lead the charts earlier now had its own problems. It slowed on the Mulsanne straight and limped back to the pits with, what turned out to be issues with the brakes and steering. This put them out of the running for the fastest time of the day and they would end up in the fifth spot in class with their earlier fast time.

Flying Lizard would lower their time to a 4:02.668 but that would only be fast enough for them to finish in the third spot in class. The #93 Porsche of Autorlando Sport took the second fastest spot with a time of 4:02.192, but the IMSA Performance Porsche went to the top of the charts again under the control of Patrick Long. Long put down a time of 4:01.598 which was two seconds quicker than last years time. Risi Competizione was only able to lay down the fourth fastest time of the day, a position they have not felt this year in the ALMS.

But what does all this mean and do the times actually mean anything? That’s hard to say. Audi said that it was concentrating on setup this day and collecting data. One car was fitted with extra data acquisition, one worked on suspension setups, one worked on tire testing and the third was running different aero packages collecting data. So we don’t really know what the Audi’s have in store come race day.

Peugeot stated that they were out to do the same and that, while very pleased with the fast time, it was not necessarily their goal for the day to go as fast as possible. You can bet that the same thing was on the mind of Henri Pescarolo as well for his team.

The Barazi Epsilon guys look to have P2 in hand pretty well, but again, once the race begins, anything can happen and RML has proven they know how to win the race. Also, the durability of the P2 cars always comes into question as it has been more of a “last man standing” class for quite a few years. Fast doesn’t always guarantee a win in P2.

Corvette Racing looked as fast as ever today and it looks like they could be poised for another Le Mans victory. The Aston boys were fast, but with the need to change an engine and with the other team car only able to manage a sixth best time, there may be some question if the choice to take off in preparation for the race is really working. Oreca has their Saleen working well and it could very well figure into the mix before its all over.

The Porsches have seemed to recover in the GT2 category. Last year Panoz took the honors, but this year they were only able to manage the sixth fastest time. The Ferraris have been quite dominant in the hands of Risi Competizione in the ALMS, but they couldn’t match the speed of the Porsches today either. Like the other classes, this doesn’t necessarily mean a lot as the teams were sure to be doing testing and evaluation today, not trying to run as fast as possible. But, it does give us a good idea of what to look for in two weeks. The IMSA Porsche was fast last year before an accident took them out. Flying Lizard and Risi are both very strong in the ALMS and will be sure to mount a good fight. Panoz, while not the fastest, showed they had the durability last year to take the win, so we just might see them at the top as well. GT2 is sure to satisfy again this year.

So in the end, the times leave us all in hopes for a great race and all indicators point to some very close races. All the classes show serious promise and the racing should be close. But, with everyone surely concerned more with testing and setup today, the final tally from today doesn’t guarantee anything. Place your bets, choose your favorites. In two weeks, we’ll know all the answers.

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