The Speedy/Sebah Lola behind the Lavaggi P1 car
Speedy/Sebah
QUIFEL-ASM
Spyker Squadron
Tomas Enge
Michelin
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Speedy/Sebah
The SPEEDY RACING TEAM SEBAH Lola-Judd number 33, driven by Andrea BELICCHI qualified 3rd in the LMP2 prototype class for the fourth round of 2008 Le Mans Series at Nurburgring.
Andrea Belicchi after the qualifying session : " I was on a good pace and I made my fastest lap keeping a very little safety margin in some corners. After that I have tired to push a little bit more with the Essex Porsche just in front of me, I made a little mistake at the entry of the Bit-Kurve with no consequence. I am happy for the team, we are not far from the Porsche so we could have a good race tomorrow "
Team manager Bart Hayden : " Once again we proved that we are the best competitor against the Porsche RS spyder. The work carried out by the team during the summer allowed us to stay close to the Porsche in pure performance. The drivers are all ready to deliver strong and reliable driving, they are hungry for the podium, as is everybody in the team and our partners. We should have a great battle tomorrow, strategy and tyre choices will be key to staying in front and we are hopeful of a very good result."
QUIFEL-ASM
QUIFEL-ASM Team gain place in third row at Nurburgring
The QUIFEL-ASM Team took the Lola B05/40 AER to the third row on the starting grid in the qualifying session for the race on the German circuit. With a time of 1:44:682, Olivier Pla ensured a place in 5th position in the qualifying session this morning.
Miguel Pais do Amaral also went round fast, getting lap times between 48 and 49 seconds, taking two seconds off yesterday's time. The team has shown a keen competitive edge and a strong and consistent performance.
The Lola B05/40 AER had no problems and the new Dunlop tyre combination is proving to be highly efficient. The weather at Nurburgring is good, despite the presence of some cloud today.
The 1000km race in Nurburgring will begin tomorrow, Sunday, at 11am and there will be extensive television coverage, with Eurosport 2 covering events live for a total transmission time of 3 hours and 45 minutes.
Spyker Squadron
Nuerburgring - In sunny weather conditions SNORAS Spyker Squadron qualified seventh and ninth for tomorrows Nuerburgring 1000 km race. Peter Dumbreck qualified the #85 SNORAS Spyker Squadron car and set a quickest time of 1:59.613, 1.7 seconds behind the GT2 pole position. Benjamin Leuenberger set a best of 2:00.132 in the #94 Speedy Racing Team Spyker.
Both cars run an updated version of the V8 engine in the fourth Le Mans Series round. The typical American V8-sound is no more and has been replaced by a screaming V8-race sound as both the fire order- and crankshaft configurations have been changed. There was also new rubber for the Dutch team; Michelin brought new softer front tires to Germany. The tires do what they were designed for: more grip on the front axle. The team tried them on the #85 car but found that they could not get the car in balance with the rear.
"The times we did this morning with the softer tires were a bit slower than in qualifying so I think we made the right decision to qualify and race with the mediums on the front" said Peter Dumbreck afterwards. "I had a clear lap to qualify and was on the limit with the car. All in all at the best we maybe could have done one position better on the grid. We are less than two seconds off on a two minute lap which is not a bad result at all".
Benjamin Leuenberger: "Qualifying went quite well. We made a few changes after the third practice to have a bit more oversteer and it certainly was a step in the right direction. The car actually feels pretty good. I tried to push as hard as possible but would have loved to break to two-minute barrier. In the last races we finished twice in a row on the podium and I would be very happy if we could repeat that tomorrow".
Peter van Erp, managing director Spyker Squadron: "I am very pleased with our results and progress so far. Our times in all the free practice sessions are closer to the competition than at previous races and the engine modification are working quite well and give a good perspective for future races". He continues: "If we can produce competitive times in the race tomorrow and if we stay out of trouble I think we can compete for a third position."
The 1000 km or six-hour race will start at 12:05 tomorrow and can be seen on Eurosport throughout Europe. Radiolemans.com also be on-air whilst live-timing can be found on the Le Mans Series website.
Spyker put in a good performance in qualifying
Tomas Enge
Enge on LMGT1 pole
Tomas Enge got for himself, team-mate Antonio Garcia and the whole Team Modena the LMGT1 pole position for tomorrow's 1000 km Nurburgring. He dominated the qualifying session with an Aston Martin DBR9. He pulled gap over one second to the closest competitor which was one of Corvettes. The performance of the American cars was the thing about which Enge was thinking after the last practice as he was not sure about pace before the qualifying. The Czech driver sorted the question with a superb performance and beat all rivals. Tomas will also start the race.
Tomas Enge: "I think that our work with thy tyres paid off. Even today morning we worked with the tyres like on Friday. We tried to find the best solution. We bore fruits of or work in the qualifying. The first look on the times suggests that we dominate our rivals but the race will be long as always and not the easiest one at Nurburgring. Overtaking is difficult here and it may bring collisions in the fight especially with LMP2 cars. Those prototypes are not faster than us on the straights, so they will try to overtake entering the corners. It this is always tricky with almost 50 cars on the track. We have to keep our speed and also be more cautious than normal."
Michelin
The No.7 Peugeot-Michelin will start Sunday'sNurburgring 1 ,000km from pole position thanks to a qualifying time of 1m 39.492s from Marc Gene . The French machine will be joined on the front row by its No.8 sister car which is shared by Pedro Lamy and Stephane Sarrazin . Following on the second row will be the Team Charoux Lola Aston Martin (Mucke Stefan/Charouz Jean) alongside the Audi R10 TDi of Alexandre Premat and Mike Rockenfeller.
In LMP2, Jos Verstappen/Jeroen Bleekemolen were the fastest in qualifying and also seventh quickest overall, while the GT1 field will be led away by the Team Modena Aston Martin of Garcia Antonio/Enge Thomas which posted its best lap at the very end of the session.
Michelin's GT2 partners compete in the LMS with commercially available tyres and the French firm picked up the second best time of the afternoon thanks to the No.77 Farnbacher R acing Porsche 997.
Michelin runners will monopolise the top-eight places on tomorrow's grid.
Matthieu Bonardel: Four-wheel Programme Director, Michelin Competition
"All three practice sessions took place in dry conditions and in higher temperatures than we had been expecting. This gave competitors in the different categories a chance to evaluate the performance and endurance ability of the various tyre solutions we have here this weekend.
"Although the weather remained stable, the track evolved enormously and we saw lap-times tumble from 1m 42s to 1m 39s in the space of just three sessions. Grip improved as we went along and that didn't make comparisons any easier for the teams, but everyone came to a decision in the end.
"In LMP1, the two options we have here - soft and medium - were enough to please our partners, although we can expect to see some very different calls from one end of the grid to the other, from softs or mediums on all four corners, to compromise set-ups with softs on the right-hand side and mediums on the left. The Charouz Lola put in a superb performance to sneak in amongst the diesel cars.
"In LMP2, the Van Merksteijn Porsche succeeded in mixing it with the LMP1s and make a clean break with the other cars in its category. Three types of tyre are available for this class and our new 'extra soft' tyre which is being used for the first time in Europe this weekend won over some of the teams. Most of those who tried it will also fit it for the start of the race.
"The GT1 runners were able to choose between soft and medium compounds and, here again, we saw a broad spread of choices. It is entirely possible that we will see the new 'extra soft' and 'extra hard' products available here come out during the race depending on the teams' different strategies. "We have also introduced a new GT2 tyre to our catalogue. It went very well and we are eager to see how it performs on its debut race tomorrow.
"The Nurburgring is one the venues visited by the LMS which evolves the most in the course of the race, so we will need to be prepared for that and cope with the changes as best we can. "I would be surprised if there was any double-stinting to begin with until more rubber has been laid down onto the track to provide a more consistent, grippier surface - maybe after an hour or so."