Trackday Sunday

After more than six weeks without rain, the skies above Le Mans were raked by lightning overnight, and heavy rain washed the roads clean and dampened the drifting dust. It lasted about three hours, and Sunday morning broke grey and overcast, but with the mixed prospects of another warm day.

The day's test was split into two halves. The morning session began at 09:00 and ran through to 13:00, with an hour's break before the afternoon session, which continued through to 18:00.

Morning Session

Tommy Erdos was among the first group to venture out onto the track when the pitlane exit opened at 9:00 am. Indeed, the circuit was soon busy, with most of the 54 cars active. It soon became apparent that setting quick times was not on the morning's agenda for Phil Barker and the guys from RML. Tommy was in and out of the pitlane, never really getting a chance to get to grips with the new aero, or to determine what effect, if any, the restrictor change had made. Certainly there was no a miraculous transformation as a result of either the fitting of the low-downforce aero package, or the modest restrictor break offered by the ACO.

At the end of the opening hour the predicted dominance of the Nissan-powered LMP2 cars was already very evident, with the Greaves Motorsport Zytek setting the pace with a best lap of 3:46.919. The Team Oreca and Signatech Oreca 03s were next up, just half a second shy of Tom Kimber-Smith's best in the #41 Zytek.

Such was the dominance of the Nissan contingent that the Greaves car was able to sit comfortably in tenth overall. Tommy, meanwhile, had managed a best of 4:08.199 on his one and only flying lap, to lie 28th, 8th in LMP2, and behind two out of the three Formula Le Mans cars. It was all relative.

The same could not be said for the new Audi R18. After sixty minutes, the #2 R18, with Marcel Fässler in the cockpit, was knocking at 3 minutes 30, while Tom Kristensen was a close second. The best of the Peugeots was, at that stage, almost four seconds off the quickest Audi pace. The #16 Pescarolo, winner at Paul Ricard, was best-of-the-rest, and the leading petrol-powered prototype, 8th overall.

In GTE-Pro the Ferraris narrowly had the edge over the Porsches, but the Larbre Corvette (with an all-pro line-up) headed the pack in GTE-Am. Seven cars had yet to join the fray. Neither of the works Aston Martin AMR-Ones had left the garage, and equally, the two hybrid P1 cars had also yet to complete a timed lap. The Kronos Aston Martin Lola was another non-mover, and the Young Driver Aston Martin Vantage - one of the favourites in the GTE-Pro class - hadn't yet emerged from the pitlane.

Then, with an hour and a half completed, the first of the day's showers cleared the track. Nobody was about to add undue risk to their testing agenda, and within moments, the circuit was almost empty. The voluntary break lasted the best part of half an hour, with just a handful of cars, mostly GTs, heading back out on intermediates.

News from the AMR camp suggested that the 009 AMR-One wouldn't be going anywhere, as the one and only engine was dead. The second car, the 007, did make an appearance towards midday, and then continued to run steadily through to the chequered flag, although 20th overall and slowest of the active P1 cars was the best it could do. Another late arrival was the #23 MIK Corse hybrid, which just pipped the AMR-One by clocking 19th quickest in the morning.

Having established that the car was running well, Tommy pitted the RML HPD and handed over to Ben Collins. The former Stig then completed half a dozen timed laps, plus ins- and outs-, before returning to the pitlane for fuel, and then rounding off his pre-qualifying requirements and handing on to Mike Newton. Any driver who has either never raced at Le Mans before or, as in Ben's case, not within the last three years, must complete at least 10 laps within a close percentage of class pole before being allowed to return to race in June.

With that box ticked, Ben climbed out, allowing Mike to see out the remaining forty minutes, through to one o'clock.

The timing screens told several interesting stories. To see the new Audi R18 comprehensively the quickest car in the morning came as little surprise, although Peugeot must have been disappointed when they gathered for lunch, a full four seconds slower than the #1 car's best of 3:27.900. A one-two-three offered echoes - now based on outright pace - of Audi's historic win in the 24 Hours last year.

The fastest non-diesel was still the #16 Pescarolo, nearly ten seconds adrift. No change in LMP2 either, with the Greaves Zytek clocking 3:43.601, and nearly a full second clear of the Signatech Oreca, with the factory Oreca third in class. Ben's best in the RML, a 3:56.617, saw the HPD 23rd overall, 8th in class.

Afternoon Session

The day's second session got under way at 14:00, although it was nearly forty minutes before the RML AD Group HPD joined in. "We had an issue with the telemetry this morning," explained Thomas Erdos, who had only managed a single flying lap before lunch. "We were getting no data feed into the garage, and the only information we had was from the dashboard. The team has sorted that out. In addition, we felt that the gear ratios weren't quite ideal, so we're taking advantage of the delay to fit a new set. Second gear in particular was very 'long', so we're replacing that."

Having no telemetry had meant that the drivers were getting some spurious warning lights and alarms, and while able to ignore most of them, it would only take a single legitimate alarm, over-ridden, to cause longer term problems. Another issue revealed by the high-speed testing at Le Mans concerns the rear-view mirrors, where heavy vibration has been unsighting the drivers. In race conditions this could become a safety issue, but one that will have to be addressed when the team returns to Wellingborough.

With Ben having completed his mandatory ten laps in the morning, there was a more relaxed atmosphere in the garage after lunch. Tommy was able to enjoy an extended stint in the car - more than just the out-laps and in that he's done all morning, and he posted a new best for the #36 HPD of 3:50.259. This lifted the HPD 7th in class, but now 20th overall, and ahead of the Formula Le Mans cars.

Last year, in the Lola HPD, Tommy did a best of 3:39.537, and pole fell to the Strakka Racing HPD with a time of 3:33.079. These times give some indication of just how the regulations for LMP2 have altered the complexion of the class, and 3:33 today would have placed the Strakka HPD (with the naturally aspirated V8) alongside the works Peugeots, and fastest of the petrol-powered cars.

Although the Audi R18s continued to set the pace in the afternoon, there was always a hint that more was to come from the Peugeots. Several times the 908s were seen to set outright fastest sectors, but then fail to match those times through other segments of the track. Despite this, the R18s simply looked, and sounded, so composed, whereas the Peugeots appeared a little more ragged. Perhaps there is more to come from both camps.

In LMP2, the morning's dominance by the Greaves Zytek was finally broken, although not the impressive time. First the Team Oreca Matmut 03, and then the Signatech 03 both went quicker than the Nissan-powered Zytek, but a best of 3:42.992 fell somewhat short of Tom Kimber-Smith's 3:43.601. With the quickest Audi, the #3, shaving three-tenths off the best of the morning, the track itself was not to blame, and responsibility for the slower Greaves time was explained by the absence of Kimber-Smith from the cockpit - the other three simply weren't quite as quick..

Ferrari's mastering of GTE-Pro continued, with the Hankook 458 narrowly eclipsed by the AF Corse #51. In GTE-Am it was another easy run for the Larbre Corvette, two seconds quicker than the JMB Ferrari 430 #83.

Having completed only a handful of laps in the morning, the remaining Aston Martin AMR-One did not participate in the afternoon session - thios too having encountereds engine problems. Dave Richards, boss at Prodrive, has admitted that Aston is in for the long-haul with the AMR-One, and won't be making progress in leaps and bounds over the coming weeks, but by steady diligence. They have six weeks.

In the Hybrid camp, the Hope Racing Swiss-Hytech managed 21st fastest overall, and looked fairly competent. The #23 MIK Corse hybrid, which did appear briefly before lunch, wasn't seen again.

Having achieved the primary objective - of qualifying Ben for the race in June - RML AD Group concentrated on set-up in the afternoon, and Brazilian Thomas Erdos had exclusive use of the HPD ARX-01d.

Combined Times, overall (Morning & Afternoon)

Please note - not all results from 33rd onwards are displayed. For a full listing, including times from both sessions, see PDF Classification, or visit the official Le Mans website.

A weekend review, including additional driver and team comment, has been posted here. Additional images are available from the Le Mans Test Gallery.

Radio Le Mans

Full live-action coverage of all the action on Sunday was provided by Radio Le Mans, and much of the day's content will be archived to the website as podcasts, to listen to after the event. Click the button below for access.

Please also note that we will be providing "live" coverage of the race in June here on www.rml-adgroup.com. To review an example of how detailed this is, please check out our coverage from the Le Castellet 6 Hours.