Saturday

Having sorted out the previous day's "niggly problems", it was all fairly relaxed in the RML pit garage on Saturday morning as the final preparations were made for the weekend's second free practice session. With the weather improving steadily the conditions were starting to look good for some improved times . . . .

Second Free Practice

There were some very keen drivers queuing up at the pit exit before the track opened at 10:45 for the start of the session, but Tommy wasn't long in following them out. As if to confirm that Friday's vibration problems were a pleasantly distant memory, his first Saturday flyer was a 1:41.473, and enough to sweep him through to second fastest in LMP2, just behind a quick-off-the-mark Olivier Pla in the QSM Zytek.

Tommy's next lap looked better still, especially when he posted the fastest time overall for the first sector, but the rest of the lap didn't tie up quite so neatly and he crossed the line just marginally down on his established best. Ten minutes gone, and Erdos came good with the earlier promise, and strung together the anicipated quick lap. Clocking a new best of 1:37.837 not only took him to the top of the class, but 5th overall as well.

Having completed his designated six laps, Tommy headed back to the pitlane as the clock registered 11:00. It was time for a few tweaks and the #25 was in the garage for ten minutes, during which the Racing Box Lola #29 popped up with a 1:37.691 to set fastest in LMP2.

With Mike strapped into the car, the RML Lola was back out again at 11:09 for ten minutes of consistent, untroubled lappery. A brief pitstop visit, then another stint, before returning to the pits at 11:40 to hand back to Tommy.

Meanwhile, Olivier Pla revised his best with a 1:37.885 to move third in the ASM Zytek. His next lap held the promise of improvement, with the opening two sectors quicker still, but tailed off to maintain the status quo. With Mike having just handed over to Tommy in the pits, the session was red flagged after two prototypes had a coming-together at turn two. It was a lengthy stop while these, and two other stranded cars were rounded up and returned to the pits.

The session resumed at just before twelve, with Erdos back in the cockpit of the RML Lola Mazda. His first two sectors were to be his fastest yet, but the third wasn’t, although another 1:37.9 was a reassuringly fair time. His earlier 37.8 would prove to be his best for the session, as Mike rounded off the final ten minutes.

A final flurry of action saw Jonny Kane move quickest in LMP2 with a new best of 1:37.032 for Speedy Racing Team Sebah Lola, demoting the #29 Racing Box to second and Tommy’s earlier time to third. The gentlemen back at Huntingdon would be pleased if this turned out to be representative, with Lolas in the first three slots.

LMP2 Times - Session 2

Qualifying

The pitlane opened for the twenty-minute prototype qualifying session at just gone half-three, but Tommy stayed put in the garage for several minutes more, waiting for the queue to clear. While he sat patiently staring through the windscreen towards the pitlane, Olivier Pla was setting his first flyer in the ASM Zytek, and with a 1:36.844 he was making sure of his mark. It was the fastest anyone in LMP2 had managed all weekend, and it established an early benchmark for the class.

Another Olivier - in this case Panis - was doing much the same in LMP1, although his gantlet of 1:34.832 immediately looked more attainable. That assumption was swiftly confirmed by the late-starting Danny Watts in the Strakka Racing Ginetta Zytek #23. Like Erdos, he'd waited for the congestion to clear before heading for the track, and timed his arrival perfectly with an empty sector. His first flyer raised more than a few eyebrows, when the newcomers to the championship suddenly displayed a pace nobody else had anticipated. His time of 1:32.492 was almost three seconds quicker than the Ginetta-Zytek had recorded to date, and laid a claim to overall pole that would never be bettered.

Erdos, however, had yet to leave the garage. Jonny Kane in the #33 Speedy Sebah Lola moved through onto Pla's tail to take provisional second in LMP2, and Danny Watts headed back into the pitlane, job done, before the RML Lola took on warm tyres and accelerated out into the sunshine.

It was only 15:36 and a lot had already happened in just a few minutes. Tommy had just completed his out lap, and was into his first flyer when the Bruichladdich Radical ploughed off into the gravel at Turn 3. A red flag looked likely, but Erdos pressed on until the situation became clear. The lights duly came on around the circuit, and Tommy aborted his next run having only posted a preliminary time of 1:38.744. The tyres were still fresh, so no point in returning to the garage, and the Brazilian burbled straight through to join the queue at the exit, waiting for the green light (below).

The break lasted just a couple of minutes, and a steam of cars was soon heading back out on track, with Tommy near the front. His first real flyer was a 1:34.350, and slotted the RML Lola into 3rd in LMP2. In the garage there was intense concentration on the diverse array of screens - some displaying live TV coverage, others giving the latest times and positions, but many more relaying telemetry back from the car. “This is the one!” came the words of encouragement from one corner, hissed through gritted teeth. "He’s a second up in the first sector!"

Others, watching the live feed from the track, could see that Tommy had come up rapidly behind Jean-Christophe Bouillion in the #16 Pescarolo. Having just set a good time of his own the Frenchman had apparently descended into a comfortable dream world all of his own making, and was meandering along gently, totally oblivious of anything else happening around him - and that's being charitable. Just as the RML Lola must have started looming very large in his rear-view mirrors, Bouillion started weaving aimlessly, wandering across from one side of the track to the other. Erdos had to brake, and then follow the carbon and green Pescarolo through several more corners before he could finally get by. He was livid.

With what had looked like his best lap spoiled, Tommy had to press on in the knowledge that Matteo Bobbi had just crossed the line to slot the #30 Racing Box Lola into third. The thought in the garage was that the tyres might give him one more chance, and sure enough, his first two sectors on the next lap were "greens", signifying that he was on for an improvement. He crossed the line to set a new best of 1:37.032, but it was a tantalising 7/100ths of a second shy of taking the place.

The screens warned of just a minute remaining when Giacomo Piccini in the #29 popped in a 1:36.156 to snatch LMP2 pole. Tommy crossed the line to start his final lap just before the chequered flag fell. It was a last-gasp effort, but he gave it a brave try. Once again he was quicker by half a second through the opening sector and looking good perhaps for third, but he couldn't maintain the charge. Baulked again he was forced to abort the run, and he clocked 1:37.500 to stay 5th.

“Not terrible,” shrugs Mike, “and much better than last year (when engine management problems resulted in a lowly start from tenth) but we’re within a second of pole, which is encouraging."

Tommy was still fuming when he emerged from the car, berating Bouillion for having delayed him. "The guy clearly drove with no concern for anyone else on the track. I was on a qualifying lap, a good lap, about to make a definite improvement, and he just started weaving around in front of me!" Mike Newton, who'd been watching the incident on the TV screens, was sympathetic to Tommy's dismay. "He was clearly weaving around from side to side when he knew that others would be on their hot laps, totally without consideration for anyone else," said Mike. "It may only have cost us a place, and perhaps not even that, but that’s no excuse for bad driving."

Setting aside his disappointment, Tommy was able to be positive about the way things were shaping up. "The balance feels good and the set-up has worked well. There’s a touch of very slight understeer, but that’s down to the track itself, and there’s not a lot we can do about that. I feel we’ve now got a good car for long distance racing, the engine feels strong, and we’re in good shape."

"It’s good to be up on expectations, compared to last year’s performance," said Phil Barker. "With the changes in regulations we hadn’t expected to be able to match last year’s lap times, but we’re actually very close."In fact, the Lola Mazda's 1:37.032 was nearly a second and a half quicker than the EX265 had managed in 2008.

LMP2 Times - Qualifying

There are high resolution images posted in the Barcelona Gallery.

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