The Spykers showed encouraging speed in qualifying
James Watt Automotive
Spyker Squadron
Tomas Enge
Michelin
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James Watt Automotive
JWA's Qualifying Debut Ends Prematurely
Silverstone, Northamptonshire -- Qualifying for Round 5 of the 2008 Le Mans Series, Sunday's 'Autosport 1000km of Silverstone', was a mixed affair for James Watt Automotive (JWA) at Silverstone with a brake issue hampering the progress of the #93 Aston Martin Vantage GT2, making its European debut this weekend, while the team's #95 Porsche entry enjoyed a solid run to seventh in class.
Saturday morning again brought varying conditions at the British track following Friday's dry morning, wet afternoon sessions. While the sun was breaking through in the final hour-long practice run, the still-damp, but drying circuit failed to allow the team to commit to a tried and tested set-up for the all-new GT2 challenger heading into its first Le Mans Series qualifying run.
Keeping the 'home' theme going in the sole stop in the UK for the Le Mans Series, Bradford-based Tim Sugden was charged with qualifying around Silverstone's sweeping Grand Prix circuit -- the British sports car veteran sharing the Aston Martin race seat with South Africa's Alan van der Merwe and Denmark's Michael Outzen. Unfortunately JWA's hopes of a strong qualifying debut were thwarted as a brake 'grab' issue sidelined the car in the pits with five minutes of the 20-minute session remaining -- leaving it 13th in the GT2 class.
"We're massively disappointed with where we ended up in qualifying with the Aston Martin," said James Watt, JWA Team Principal. "We've struggled a bit with set-up all weekend so we elected to treat qualifying as an extended set-up time. Unfortunately while Tim was out there we had a brake 'grab' issue on the car and he radioed in that there was soon to be a shortage of power and that the car was over-turning on the right-hand corners. The front-left wheel was locking up causing huge handling issues. The time we ended up setting in qualifying is far from reflective of what will be our race pace tomorrow."
Watt continued; "We said at the beginning of the weekend that if we came away with a race finish we'd be quite content. We've obviously tried to be as competitive as possible and we'll continue to work on a set-up for the race. Looking at the bigger picture we're pretty pleased with the reliability of the Aston Martin despite a few 'new car' blues encountered along the way. I'm confident in our driver line-up for the #93 car, it's really strong and I've been very impressed with the way Tim, Alan and Michael have all worked together."
Tim Sugden was pragmatic after his run ended early; "The brake issue really came from nowhere which is a real shame as the car was handling really well, probably the best it had been so-far this weekend. I thought we might have initially had an engine problem as the car was slowing in a straight line but it turned out to be an issue with one of the brakes sticking. It's frustrating! We knew we weren't likely to be candidates for the class pole on our first weekend running the car but we were hoping to be competitive. We've got to focus on the race now and we've already proved that if it rains tomorrow we should be strong."
Matt Griffin qualified JWA's #95 Porsche 997 RSR seventh in class, its highest grid slot of the season courtesy of a flying lap of 1m52.364s. Griffin will share the car tomorrow with Peter Bamford and series regular, Paul Daniels.
Sunday's six-hour endurance race, the 'Autosport 1000km of Silverstone', kicks off at 11:20am GMT
The race will be broadcast live on TV across Europe by Motors TV
Spyker Squadron
Silverstone - The Spyker Laviolette's will start from a 6th and 10th position in tomorrow's ‘Autosport 1000 km of Silverstone', the last round in this year's Le Mans Series race season. The weekend started for the Dutch team with two free-practice sessions on Friday. Although the first free practice session was held in dry conditions, the two remaining sessions were completed on a damp track.
The performance and handling of the C8 Laviolette in the wet was great. In the early stages of the second free practice session Tom Coronel, driving the #85 SNORAS Spyker Squadron car, was one of the quickest drivers out on the track. At one point he was faster than many prototypes. Tom joined Squadron regulars Ralf Kelleners and Alexei Vasiliev as Peter Dumbreck races in the Japanese Super GT this weekend.
Although it stopped raining this morning the conditions did not improve a lot and the track was still wet. Most of the cars, including the Spyker's, went out on wet tires to continue their quest for the best possible race setup. As the track became dryer teams switched to intermediates or slicks and times continued to improve right until the end of the last practice session. Peter van Erp, managing director Spyker Squadron: "In the rain we were one of the teams to beat. We could quickly find a setup that worked well for us. This morning we continued with this softer setup but towards the end of the session, when the track got dryer, this caused our cars to oversteer a bit".
This afternoon, in the 20 minute GT qualifying session, Andrea Chiesa set the 10th quickest time in the #94 Speedy Racing Team car he shares with Benjamin Leuenberger. Andrea: "Predictions for tomorrow are dry so it is a bit frustrating that we did not have enough time to finalise the setup for the race tomorrow. To get out for qualifying with a car that is not perfectly setup and directly drive on the limit of your skills is tough. Maybe I could have found another second but I did not want to take too much risk".
Ralf Kelleners qualified the #85 SNORAS Spyker Squadron car. He managed to set the 6th best time in class. "I am happy with today's qualifying result but for now we have always had a good balance for the race" said Ralf after the race. "This time we had limited practice time due to yesterday's rain and the setup for tomorrow's race is not yet perfect. So we will make some changes overnight and I hope that we will have a bit more grip at the rear for the race tomorrow".
The race will start at 11:20 tomorrow and will be covered live by radiolemans.com and Eurosport.
Tomas Enge
Enge won a toss and got second
The tradition of changing drivers for qualifying was changed for today and team Modena selected to toss a coin to decide qualifying driver. Tomas Enge was lucky to choose the right side and won over his Spanish team-mate Antonio Garcia. The Czech driver qualified the car and will also start the Autosport 1000 km of Silverstone race. He got the second place on the GT1 grid for the final race of the Le Mans Series 2008. As usual, he will drive an Aston Martin DBR9.
Tomas Enge: "Our team used to switch Antonio and me each race and the one who did qualifying also started the race. However, the season final is an odd race we decided to toss a coin and I won. We decided tyres which are not the best ones for a quick lap but they are very good over the whole stint in the race. This is the reason why I used them in the qualifying and finished "only" second. The most important thing is the race. If we won and our main rivals did not finish we would win the championship. We will do everything to win and what happens elsewhere is without our power."
Michelin
The No.8 Peugeot -Michelin will start from pole position in Sunday's Silverstone 1000 km after Stephane Sarrazin set the fastest time during qualifying this afternoon. It will share the front row with the other Peugeot, car No.7, driven by Nicolas Minassian and Marc Gene, while the two Audis will start from row two. It promises to be a close battle between the two manufacturers who are fighting to secure the Le Mans Series title this weekend.
In the LMP2 category, top spot went to the Jos Verstappen/Jeroen Bleekemolen pairing, who will start from 8th position overall, while the IBP Spartak Racing Lamborghini set fastest time in GT1.
In GT2, where Michelin supplies its partners with tyres from its commercial range, the French manufacturer set second-fastest time with the No.76 Porsche 997 of Team Imsa Performance Matmut.
Michelin partners claimed the top nine spots on the grid.
Matthieu Bonardel (Manager of Michelin(s Four-wheel Competition Programme, Michelin):
A tricky tyre choice...
"Today's tyre selection was very tricky given the poor weather conditions that we've encountered since the start of the weekend. At no point did we have a dry circuit and optimum grip conditions throughout a session. The teams gradually reached their own decisions on tyre choice and while some are daring and others more conservative, they're certainly very different. Furthermore, as qualifying was held on a relatively 'green' circuit with low grip levels, we possess comparatively little information for the race. It means we'll be relying on our past experience of this circuit, and the data collected at other races this season."
Stints
"We have some doubts as to how well the teams have been able to set -up their cars, and therefore as to whether the tyres will be able to last for double stints with a less-than-perfect set-up. Poor car balance could prove very costly at this circuit, which is particularly demanding for the tyres."
Soft, medium-- and a mixture of the two
"In LMP1, there are some widely varying choices of soft or medium compounds, and combinations of the two. In LMP2, we will use medium and soft compounds, although certain teams will probably go for familiar choices. Generally, the LMP2 teams have taken relatively few risks in order to avoid any nasty surprises, while the LMP1 have been more audacious. In GT1 too, some cars seem to have chosen suitable combinations of tyre compounds. As for GT2, using our commercial tyre range, we are continuing development of our latest solutions and we will try to achieve sufficient competitiveness to help our teams to clinch the championship. We are severely lacking in mileage on this new tyre and as we will be starting in less-than-ideal conditions, we are prepared for good - and bad - surprises--"
Rain
"For the first time of season, rain has disrupted our race weekend and gave us the opportunity to test several types of grooved tyres, different for every car. We encountered extremely wet track conditions, then a drying track with wet patches on the straights. These conditions caused aquaplaning for the prototypes that weren't using 'cut' tyres. In contrast, cars that were running 'cuts' atthe same time achieved a strong level of performance. If it rains tomorrow, it will once again be a case of using the right tyre, at the right time, according to the amount of water out there on the circuit."