The Creation is gaining pace - qualifying in seventh
Courtesy of the Le Mans Series/DPPI
The magic two minute barrier for prototype sports cars at Spa remains unbroken after qualifying for the fourth race of the 2007 Le Mans Series at the majestic Belgian track. However, Peugeot drivers Nicolas Minassian and Stephane Sarrazin were coming extremely close during qualifying on Saturday afternoon in their 650 horsepower Peugeot 908 HDI FAPs.
Minassian established the pole position at 2m00.105s, his team-mate Sarrazin second just 0.452s slower. The battles raged throughout the grid, with Brazilian Tommy Erdos setting the “LM” P2 category pole position in his RML-run MG Lola and Stephane Ortelli leading the GT1 field in the Team ORECA Saleen.
Porsche and Ferrari continue to battle in the “LM” GT2 class, Marc Lieb establishing the early advantage in qualifying as he set fastest time ahead of Allan Simonsen in the Virgo Motorsport Ferrari 430 GT.
"LM" P1
Peugeot secured the front row in qualifying for the Spa 1000kms, Nicolas Minassian beating his teammate Stephane Sarrazin by four tenths of the second.
It is a race that Minassian and his codriver Marc Gene consider critical to their title aspirations. They retired from the second race in Valencia back in May, and finished behind their teammates at the Nurburgring in July and trail their team-mates by eight points with three races remaining.
“If we don’t win tomorrow, we can say goodbye to the title,” said Gene who, with Minassian, have scored every pole position of the season so far in their Peugeot HDi FAP.
The diesel-powered cars looked stunning around the majestic Belgian circuit. Six days of testing since the last race in Germany in July contributed to an increase in performance which wastelling around the Belgian circuit, with Stefan Mucke third in the Charouz Racing Lola.
The battle of the petrol engine cars was typically close, Mucke heading Arena Motorsport’s Hayanari Shimoda by four hundredths of a second with Jean-Christophe Boullion five tenths of a second behind in the Pescarolo.
“The handling of the car is much better and we are very confident for the race,” said Boullion who, with Emmanuel Collard won every Le Mans Series race in 2006. “We have good fuel consumption, the car is better with fuel in it and we hope that it will be dry for the race.”
Jonathan Cochet headed the Creation of Jamie Campbell-Walter, the pair also breaking in the 2m04s bracket.
"LM" P2
Tommy Erdos continued RML’s competitive showing when the Brazilian set pole position in his MG Lola, tenth on the grid overall.
Erdos, and his co-driver Mike Newton, won at the Nurburgring in July, and the Brazilian’s time bettered that of Michael Vergers’ Barazi Epsilon Zytek by four tenths of a second.
“It is a great car to drive and we have a very good compound of tyre for the race,” said Erdos.
Warren Hughes was third fastest in the Embassy Racing Radical that the British driver will share with Darren Manning for the first time. Regular co-driver Neil Cunningham will miss this race as his partner is expected to give birth this weekend.
Manning, a star of the IRL series in the US, will also drive the car at the next round in Silverstone next month.
Angel Burgueno was fourth fastest in the Quifel Team ASM Lola, just seven hundredths of a second faster than fourth placed Chris Buncombe in the Binnie Motorsports Lola.
The Embassy Radical was strong as rumours grow about their future plans
Courtesy of the Le Mans Series/DPPI
"LM" GT1
Stephane Ortelli headed the first Saleen S7R 1-2 of the year in qualifying as his ORECA Saleen headed the Racing Box S7R of Marco Cioci by half a second.
The Frenchman, sharing with Soheil Ayari, was delighted with the set-up of the car.
“It was nice to be able to take both Eau Rouge and Blanchiment flat out,” said Ortelli.
Third fastest was the Corvette of Luc Alphand, Jerome Policand and Patrice Goueslard while Antonio Garcia was fourth in the Team Modena Aston Martin.
“Qualifying is a bit of a disappointment,” said Garcia, who was held up in traffic on two of his fast laps. “We are in fourth place, the fastest Aston Martin, but there is not enough grip in the fast corners, particularly in the downhill sections.”
Karl Wendlinger was fifth in the JetAlliance Aston Martin which is making its debut in the series and the Austrian was surprised to find himself ahead of some of the more established teams.
“This car is in FIA trim, so it perhaps has more drag and less downforce,” said Wendlinger. “We expected to be slower than the Le Mans Aston Martins, so it was nice to find that we were a little bit faster than some of them!”
Fabrizio Gollin was sixth in the Larbre Competition Aston Martin DBR9, the Italian struggling for front-end grip which led to a huge slide in the fast Eau Rouge corner on his first flying lap.
“We are sixth, but the whole GT1 field is closely matched,” he said.
"LM" GT2
Marc Lieb returned to the top of the time sheets in the “LM” GT2 category when the German lapped the circuit half a second faster than the Virgo Motorsport Ferrari 430 GT of Allan Simonsen.
“Pole for the 1000kms is always very good; we got a good set up for the track at the 24 hour race two weeks ago,” said Lieb, who won his class at the Spa 24 hours in a Pirelli-shod Porsche.
The IMSA Performance Matmut team posted third fastest time, Richard Lietz 1.2s behind the Ferrari but ahead of the JWA Porsche of Paul Daniels, Dave Cox and Joel Camathias.
The Panoz's struggled in qualifying
Courtesy of the Le Mans Series/DPPI
The Grid
Pos Class Drivers Team Car Time To 1st
1 LMP1 M.Gene, N.Minassian Team Peugeot Total Peugeot 908 HDi FAP 02:00.1
2 LMP1 P.Lamy, S.Sarrazin Team Peugeot Total Peugeot 908 HDi FAP 02:00.6 0.452
3 LMP1 S.Mucke, J.Charouz Charouz Racing Lola B07/17 Judd 02:04.2 4.115
4 LMP1 S.Johansson, H.Shimoda Arena Motorsport Zytek 07S Zytek 02:04.3 4.159
5 LMP1 E.Collard, J.Boullion Pescarolo Sport Pescarolo Judd 02:04.8 4.701
6 LMP1 A.Frei, J.Cochet Courage Competition Courage LC70 AER 02:04.8 4.731
7 LMP1 Campbell, J.Walter, F.Ortiz, S.Nakano Creation Autosportif Creation CA07 Judd 02:04.9 4.797
8 LMP1 J.Gounon, G.Moreau, V.Petrov Courage Competition Courage LC70 AER 02:05.5 5.371
9 LMP1 H.Primat, C.Tinseau Pescarolo Sport Pescarolo Judd 02:05.5 5.433
10 LMP2 T.Erdos, M.Newton RML MG Lola EX264 AER 02:06.7 6.555
11 LMP1 J.Barbosa, S.Hall, M.Short Rollcentre Racing Pescarolo Judd 02:07.1 7.03
12 LMP2 J.Barazi, M.Vergers, K.Ojjeh Barazi Epsilon Zytek 07S Zytek 02:07.1 7.032
13 LMP2 W.Hughes, D.Manning Embassy Racing Radical SR9 Judd 02:08.2 8.049
14 LMP2 M.Amaral, M.Decastro, A.Burgeno Quifel ASM Team Lola B05/40 AER 02:08.3 8.157
15 LMP2 B.Binnie, A.Timpany, C.Buncombe Binnie Motorsports Lola B05/40 Zytek 02:08.3 8.226
16 LMP2 S.Moseley, T.Greaves Bruichladdich Radical Radical SR9 AER 02:08.6 8.463
17 LMP1 G.Evans, B.Berridge, P.Owen Chamberlain Synergy Lola B06/10 AER 02:08.6 8.517
18 LMP2 F.Lienhard, D.Theys, Van, De, E.Poele Horag Racing Lola B05/40 Judd 02:09.5 9.346
19 LMP2 J.Nicolet, A.Filhol, B.Jouanny Saulnier Racing Courage LC75 AER 02:10.1 10.041
20 LMP2 De, J.Pourtales, N.Siedler Kruse Motorsport Pescarolo Judd 02:10.4 10.249
21 LMP2 M.Rostan, P.Bruneau, S.Pullan Pierre Bruneau Pilbeam MP93 Judd 02:13.6 13.513
22 LMGT1 S.Ortelli, S.Ayari Team Oreca Saleen S7-R 02:14.7 14.61
23 LMGT1 Perazzini G.Pier, M.Cioci, K.Mollekens Racing Box Saleen S7-R 02:15.3 15.165
24 LMGT1 J.Policand, P.Goueslard, L.Alphand Alphand Aventures Corvette C6.R 02:15.4 15.25
25 LMGT1 A.Garcia, C.Fittipaldi Team Modena Aston Martin DBR9 02:16.0 15.856
26 LMGT1 L.Lichtnerhoyer, K.Wendlinger, T.Gruber jetAlliance Racing Aston Martin DBR9 02:16.0 15.901
27 LMGT1 C.Bouchut, G.Gardel, F.Gollin AMR Larbre Aston Martin DBR9 02:16.0 15.94
28 LMGT1 J.Blanchemain, S.Dumez, V.Vosse Alphand Aventures Corvette C5-R 02:16.1 16.014
29 LMP2 R.Randaccio, G.Collini Ranieri Randaccio Lucchini McLaren 02:18.1 17.99
30 LMGT1 G.Fisken, S.Zacchia, G.Franchi AMR Larbre Aston Martin DBR9 02:19.0 18.903
31 LMGT2 M.Lieb, X.Pompidou Felbermayr-Proton Porsche 997 GT3 RSR 02:21.5 21.42
32 LMGT2 R.Bell, A.Simonsen Virgo Motorsport Ferrari F430 GT 02:22.1 21.96
33 LMGT2 R.Narac, R.Lietz Imsa Performance Porsche 997 GT3 RSR 02:23.3 23.188
34 LMGT2 P.Daniels, D.Cox, J.Camathias JWA Porsche 997 GT3 RSR 02:23.5 23.42
35 LMGT2 A.Bonetti, F.De Simone, S.Hernandez GPC Sport Ferrari F430 GT 02:23.6 23.516
36 LMGT2 D.Werner, P.Ehret, Nielsen E.Lars Farnbacher Racing Porsche 997 GT3 RSR 02:23.8 23.684
37 LMGT2 A.Caffi, D.Zardo Scuderia Villorba Ferrari F430 GT 02:24.2 24.061
38 LMGT2 L.Drudi, J.Mowlem, G.Rosa GPC Sport Ferrari F430 GT 02:24.2 24.11
39 LMGT2 Y.Lambert, C.Lefort, S.Lemeret Ice Pol Racing Team Ferrari F430 GT 02:24.5 24.398
40 LMGT2 J.Janis, P.Kox Spyker Squadron Spyker C8 Spyder GT2R 02:24.5 24.399
41 LMGT2 A.Belicchi, A.Chiesa, J.Kane Speedy Racing Team Spyker C8 Spyder GT2R 02:24.6 24.468
42 LMGT2 R.Penders, F.Lamot, B.Cauwberghs Prospeed Competition Porsche 997 GT3 RSR 02:24.8 24.655
43 LMGT2 Kimber-smith Tom, D.Watts Team LNT Panoz Esperante GTLM 02:25.0 24.899
44 LMGT2 C.Ried, Felbermayr J.Horst, M.Basseng Felbermayr-Proton Porsche 997 GT3 RSR 02:26.3 26.145
45 LMGT2 L.Tomlinson, R.Dean Team LNT Panoz Esperante GTLM 02:27.1 26.979
46 LMGT2 Basso Maurice B.McCormick, P.Kutemann JMB Racing Ferrari F430 GT 02:29.6 29.514
47 LMGT2 Felbermayr S.Horst, G.Ried, P.Collin Felbermayr-Proton Porsche 996 GT3 RSR 02:32.9 32.844
48 LMGT2 K.Thiim, T.Thyrring Markland Racing Corvette C6 Z06 02:33.4 33.274