Friday at Paul Ricard

Just a month after the official ACO test days at Paul Ricard, the teams are back for the opening round of the 2010 Le Mans Series season. A total of 41 cars are entered, comprising eight LMP1, twelve LMP2, seven Formula Le Mans (FLM), just one GT1 entry, and thirteen GT2.

Most of those who took part in the test have returned, but there are also some additions. In LMP1, a single R15 TDI has arrived from Audi Sport Team Joest to challenge the privateer Peugeot 908HDi from Oreca Team Matmut. The Peugeot factory is absent for this race, although three cars are expected for the next round at Spa.

The LMP2 list is much as expected, with only two additions to the class since March 7th/8th. These are the Zytek-engined WR Salini, and the Pegasus Racing Courage AER. Both were regulars in the Series in 2009, although the WR Salini is believed to have undergone significant development over the winter, and the Pegasus Courage has abandoned the Avon tyres that it championed in 2009. The Pegasus entry is now the only car in LMP2 to have retained a four-cylinder turbocharged powerplant.

After an encouraging showing at the test, GT1 is down to just one representative for the Paul Ricard 8 Hours, with Larbre Competition the only team to have committed to a full season in the Le Mans Series. Their Saleen S7-R is guaranteed a win . . . as long as it goes the distance. In contrast, GT2 continues to enjoy great support, and the twelve-car grid includes four Porsches, six Ferraris, a Spyker, a BMW and an Aston Martin Vantage. While there are a favoured few among that list, almost any of the dozen could end up on the podium, such is the closely contested nature of the category this year.

Changes at the Track

The contractors have made best use of the weeks since the Test, and the new pit garage complex is complete. This provides generous space for another fourteen cars in five well-appointed units, and the FLM cars have been accommodated there, alongside Quifel ASM, WR Salini and a handful of GT2 squads.

The former team car park area has been set aside as a support paddock, which this weekend includes F3 Euro Series, Classic Endurance Racing and French Formula Ford.

Radio Le Mans

Full coverage of all the practice sessions will be aired live on Radio Le Mans.

First Practice Session

The day's first session of free practice got under way at 12:40 local time, although true to form, Tommy was held back in the garage for just a few minutes to enable the engineers to complete all their final pre-run checks, and for the throng of cars to spread out a little more evenly around the circuit.

With nearly ten minutes completed, the red, white and blue Lola eased out into the pitlane and headed off to join the masses. Up until this point, Danny Watts in the Strakka Racing HPD ARX had been comfortably quickest in the class, but Tommy's first flyer of 1:49.551 bettered that by nearly two-tenths, and placed the RML AD Group car #25 in seventh overall. Early examination of the split times suggested that the Lola was perhaps two seconds quicker through the final third, but the Strakka car had an edge through the middle sector.

Tommy completed five timed laps before returning to the pitlane for some tweaks. While he was there, Watts posted an improvement for Strakka of 1:48.160, which not only regained top slot in LMP2, but also moved ahead of the #12 Rebellion LMP1 Lola. Erdos rejoined at 13:12, but only completed three laps before returning to the pitlane, where Mike Newton was waiting to take over.

Tommy's initial thoughts were that the car was perhaps not as quick along the Mistral as it had been during the test, "but that's almost certainly down to the warmer ambient temperatures here today, and that will be affecting everyone else as well. The circuit also feels very different from the test days. It may be warmer, but the track feels very "green", with lower grip levels." That will improve over the next two days as the continued use of the track cleans away the dust and surface grime. A thin film of rubber will also be set down, the smallest grains filling the microscopic gaps in the tarmac and improving adhesion, while larger granules will build up along the margins of the racing line to create the "marbles" that will punish drivers who stray wide.

"It's early days yet,"shrugged the Brazilian, "and we're not concerned by lap times or competitiveness at this stage. We're still making adjustments in the cockpit to ensure that everyone's comfortable, and we'll be making more changes to the set-up before the next session."

At 13:25, Mike eased out onto the track to run through to the end of the session at 13:40. By this time the ASM Quifel Ginetta Zytek in the hands of Olivier Pla had moved through to second in LMP2, posting a time that bettered Tommy's first flyer by three tenths. Danny Watts had handed over the Strakka HPD to Nick Leventis without improvement. Mike completed his quarter-hour very contented by progress. "I completed an aggregate 53.4 towards the end of the run that would have been very pleasing," he conceded. He was also happy to be carrying more speed through the challenging Signes Curve than he ever has before.

In the final few minutes Pla made a further improvement for ASM, but elsewhere there was little to report in LMP2 - except perhaps that the Formula Le Mans cars were showing strongly in the midfield, with the Applewood Seven car posting a very respectable time. The #24 Oak Racing Pescarolo managed to complete just one, slow lap and spent much of the session in the garage. Elsewhere, the #6 Oreca Matmut AIM stopped out on track and was returned to the paddock on a flatbed. The car had been fastest overall in the Ricard test lat month, but was third this morning on 1:44.660, narrowly behind the #4 Oreca Peugeot (fastest with 1:44.154) and the Audi R15 (second on 1:44.397).

"This has been our first run since the test here last month," said Phil Barker, Team Manager at RML. "We have been able to push on the Dunlop tyres for the first time. It was simply too cold here in March, but the track and ambient temperatures today have allowed us to learn so much more. The drivers are generating far higher g-forces through the corners, and that meant changing some aspects of the set-up and trimming the balance to suit, but the results have been very encouraging."

First Session - LMP2 Times

Second Session

The day's second session started just behind schedule, but continued through until 17:25. In the RML pit, Thomas Erdos started the period with a brief five-lap stint before handing over to Mike Newton, who then remained in the #25 Lola for the middle two-thirds. Andy Wallace then rounded off the hour by completing the final fifteen minutes.

Second Session - LMP2 Times

"Between sessions we made a number of changes to the car, and those achieved further significant steps forwards," said Phil Barker."We designated the afternoon to Mike and Andy, and they both turned in some very good laptimes on a track that was degrading rapidly. There were significant oil patches and varying grip."

Significantly, and with the aim of learning as much as possible about the wear and durability of the new Dunlop race compound, the team employed the same set of tyres throughout the day. "We'll let Tommy have some fresh tyres tomorrow," grinned Phil. "Then we'll get a better idea of where we stand. It's still 'work in progress', but we're getting there."

The first Saturday sesion begns at 09:45.