The Felbermayr Porsche will line up second in GT2
Alex Davison
Pat Long
Allan McNish
Michelin
Click a link to go directly to that story!
Alex Davison
Melbourne driver Alex Davison will make his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut from second in the LM GT2 class tomorrow, following qualifying at the famous French circuit overnight.
Davison will become the 31st Australian to tackle the sportscar classic when its 75th running kicks off at 11pm (AEST) tomorrow, Saturday, night.
After a frustrating run in Wednesday's first day of qualifying, Team Felbermayr-Proton's #77 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR was second-fastest of the 12-car LM GT2 field on Thursday and will start the race from 45th on the outright grid.
Wolf Henzler, who will share the car with Davison and team-owner Horst Felbermayr Sr, became the first-ever LM GT2 driver to set a sub four-minute laptime on the circuit during the daylight running.
While the time, 3:59.072, was eclipsed shortly afterwards by the #76 Imsa Performance Matmut Porsche, it remained good enough for second.
Reverting from qualifying tyres to race tyres, Davison hopped in the car early in Qualifying Two, and set a blistering pace in the slower night session.
Often the fastest LM GT2 car on track by up-to three seconds a lap, Davison's fastest time was under a second shy of Henzler's lap and good enough in its own right for third in class.
"I didn't get to do much running on Wednesday with red flags and the way our sessions worked out, so it was good to get out there and do some laps in the dry," Davison said.
"With medium tyres I was as quick as Wolf on my best lap until I came up to a yellow flag late in the lap, which cost me seven or eight tenths of a second.
"We were the fastest GT2 car out there all night so I'm pleased with how the session went."
Qualifying gave Davison his first taste of the 13.629km Le Mans layout at night, a task made more challenging by three faster classes of cars regularly - and often rapidly - closing in from behind to pass the LM GT2 competitors.
"On Wednesday night I felt a little bit out at sea, but tonight was good and I was really comfortable," he said.
"It's incredibly dark, almost like driving down a freeway at night where you're watching the white line on the middle of the road.
"Then you have the faster cars coming up behind you to pass, their headlights are so bright it literally blinds you momentarily."
Davison's attention now turns to the weekend's race, which kicks off at 3pm local time on Saturday (11:00pm AEST) after a 45-minute morning warm-up session.
"The car is good and we're had great support from Porsche," the 27-year-old said.
"Our pace is really consistent between day and night running, the car is easy to drive and it looks after its tyres well over a stint, which is what you need in a 24 Hour race.
"We'll start the race with single stints for each driver, then do a lot of double and even triple stints throughout the night so each driver gets a good rest.
"Everything has come together well, so we're looking forward to Saturday."
Pat Long
Pole and Lap Record at Le Mans!
American Porsche factory driver Patrick Long snagged the GT2 Class pole for the 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans today, blistering the 8.48-mile (13.65km) Circuit de la Sarthe to set a new class lap record with a time of 3:58.152. Long, driving for defending champions IMSA Performance MATMUT in a 2008-spec Porsche 911 GT3RSR, will co-drive Saturday's race with fellow Porsche factory driver Richard Lietz and Raymond Narac.
Long, a two-time class winner at Le Mans (2004 and 2007), is seeking another victory in the world's most prestigious sportscar race. He said, "Wednesday, in the first qualifying sessions, we ended up just behind the Flying Lizard Porsche of my friend Jorg Bergmeister in 2nd place on the timesheets. Today our main objective was to see what the weather did - we needed to use all the time today before dinner to continue to develop our race setup, and the weather cooperated. At dinner we made a collective decision to put on a new set of tires and try for a quick lap time. We were on-schedule with the racecar setup, and all three of us drivers were happy with where we were at. I was expecting my lap to end up a 3:59, so I was surprised to see a 3:58.152 when I got into the pits. It's definitely pretty sweet to set pole here, in this atmosphere. To set a track record is icing on the cake."
Patrick's fans and friends will be able to keep track of his race week as he files daily video blog reports from Le Mans, exclusively on Speedtv.com. Visit SpeedTV.com or PatrickLong.com to watch.
Allan McNish
Allan McNish leads Audi into a battle for the 76th Le Mans 24 Hours tomorrow (SAT, 2pm BST) adamant that the German car manufacturer can achieve an eighth win in the annual endurance race.
McNish remains convinced that despite the three diesel-engined Audi R10 TDI sportscars, which line-up in fourth, fifth and seventh places on the 55-car grid, being eclipsed by Peugeot in qualifying, the Scotsman and his fellow Audi team-mates can look forward optimistically to a successful race.
"We knew that Peugeot were our main competition and that in qualifying especially, they have a faster car than us," confirmed Dumfries-born McNish.
"But in the four previous races we've had with them already this season, Audi has shown that it can run much closer to its qualifying pace than Peugeot are able to in race trim.
"Additionally, Audi's pit-stops are normally a little quicker while we're also hopeful that our fuel economy will be better. All of these elements will combine to make it a very close encounter -- it's going to be an absolute titanic battle from green light to chequered flag.
"Furthermore, if we [Audi] can keep them [Peugeot] under constant pressure, in previous races they have shown themselves to be susceptible to making mistakes. I'm going to be niggling away at their heels throughout."
McNish set the fourth fastest time in Wednesday's opening qualifying session and shaved three-tenth's of a second off that time last night (THURS) -- on full tanks -- but remained fourth quickest while the Peugeot of Stephane Sarrazin (France) starts from pole-position.
Allan added: "Tonight's session was very positive. Like the previous evening, we didn't look at it as pure qualifying so spent time further improving the balance and consistency which allowed us to set similar fast times like the Peugeots.
"Tom, Dindo and I are all very comfortable in the car -- whether it be on full or near empty tanks, used or fresh tyres -- we're extremely happy. This allows us to be confident to attack immediately from the green light."
The Monaco-based Scotsman's co-drivers are the same as the past two years with regular Le Mans Series co-pilot Dindo Capello (I) joined by Tom Kristensen (Den). All three drivers made final adjustments to their Audi in last night's sessions.
The Audi of Mike Rockenfeller (D), Lucas Luhr (D), and Alexandre Premat (F) starts from fifth place on the grid -- again courtesy of Wednesday night -- while the R10 TDI of 2006 & '07 Le Mans winners Frank Biela (D), Emanuele Pirro (I) and Marco Werner (D) starts seventh having been bumped one place down during last night's (THURS) final time trials despite improving its time courtesy of Werner. Audi experienced no problems over the two nights of qualifying -- new engines being fitted for last night's sessions.
Audi made its Le Mans race debut in 1999 (finishing 3rd & 4th) and has since won on seven occasions (2000-2, 2004 & 2005) with the petrol-engined Audi R8 and in 2006 & '07 with the diesel-engined Audi R10 TDI.
Michelin
It's looking pretty good for Michelin.
Once again the weather decided to take a hand in proceedings as the 55 teams prepared to do battle in the second qualifying session for the Le Mans 24-Hour race. A short, sharp shower soaked the circuit just before the pit lane opened at 7 pm, which meant the competitors had to go out on a drying track.
For most teams, however, this session wasn't about chasing quick times, it was more a matter of putting in some hard work ahead of the race itself. Nevertheless, the famous Sarthe circuit still had some surprises in store. The Oreca Courage cars, for instance, flirted with the barriers, while Zonta's no.9 Peugeot and Stuart Hall's Creation both went off. And Michelin claimed first place in every one of the four classes.
Time, then, for Michelin's 4-wheel competitions manager Matthieu Bonardel to take stock.
"That little shower before the session got under way cleared the air," he said, "and we began the session in temperatures similar to those we had encountered near the end of the previous day. That gave us some continuity in our work, and helped us learn more about tyre use in lower temperatures and how best to switch between the medium and soft compounds."
What was the main focus in this second session?
Matthieu Bonardel : "The teams put in a lot of laps. Some of the prototypes were trying for times, and that was certainly the case with the Lola. It was a very helpful session on the endurance front and for assessing the whole range of tyres. Both the prototypes and the GT runners were doing double stints to compare how the medium and soft compounds reacted, and what we found was that there was no performance drop-off by the end of the second stint. So we know the medium tyres will be able to run deep into the night."
Has qualifying given us a true picture of the running order?
Matthieu Bonardel : "It's a game that always leaves some happy and some not so happy, and it's probably fair to say that the classification doesn't entirely reflect reality. But one thing's for certain - these cars are all superbly prepared. The first two hours of the race will tell us a lot. We've had a very wet test day, a warm first qualifying session and unsettled conditions in the second, which has given us a range of data we hadn't been able to see till now. We've learned a tremendous amount about what tyres to choose and when to use them. And it's looking pretty good for Michelin."
Results by categories:
LMP1 Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP N8: 3'18''513
LMP2 Porsche Spyder RS N34: 3'32''301
GT1 Corvette Racing N63: 3'47''668
GT2 Porsche IMSA Performance N76: 3'58''152