In a True Light

After all the waiting, the speculation, discussions and rumours, now the facts. The 2011 Le Mans Season moves into top gear with Round 1 at Le Castellet, and the true nature of the new season becomes a little clearer. There's a buzz of anticipation in the paddock, and many conversations have centred on the issues concerning the relative pace of the cars on the entry list - the likely performance of the new Aston Martin AMR-One; the disparity between the FLM cars and their LMP2 counterparts; the new Ferrari F458 vs the older F430; the heritage of the Oreca 03 chassis, and the showdown between Strakka Racing and RML AD Group now that the two squads share the same chassis. Friday's first Free Practice sessions were expected to answer just a few of those questions.

Before those even began, one or two items had been addressed. Guess Racing kept everyone guessing for several months, over what car they might race and which drivers they might name, but in the end, the enigmatic team didn't actually arrive at Paul Ricard at all, so their LMP1 entry (lately rumoured to be an ex-Racing Box/MIK racing Lola Coupé) had been scratched from the list.

Another non-appearance was the GruppeM Porsche 911 RSR. The team hasn't been seen much outside the Far East since winning successive titles in the British and FIA GT titles - 2004 BGT with Jonny Cocker, and 2005 FIA GT2 with Mike Rockenfeller and Marc Lieb. Much was expected of a team with that kind of background, but no explanation has yet given for the car's absence at Paul Ricard. The Team LNT Radical SR9 was another absentee from the ranks in LMP2, largely because the car was believed not yet to be "race ready". An MIK Corse Zytek LMP1 mooted for the weekend had always been questionable, so no great surprise that the car wasn't there.

As a result of these adjustments to the entry list, a potential 34 cars would line up on the grid for Sunday's six-hour race.

First Session

The day's first session began under clear blue skies and bright sunshine, a very dry track, and ambient temperature hovering around the 18 degrees mark. A huge change over the near-freezing, bleak and overcast conditions that accompanied the test at Paul Ricard three weeks ago.

Peugeot completed an extended through-the-night test here on Wednesday with the new 908, and after two more practice sessions this morning (for the Porsche Carrera Cup and the F3 Euroseries) the track conditions were fairly good. Times were soon dipping down below the fastest we'd seen at the test, with Collard topping the screens in the #16 Pescarolo LMP1 with a best of 1:48.947 after ten minutes.

Tommy had only just emerged onto the circuit at this stage, with instructions from Phil Barker to complete four timed laps before returning to the pitlane. Setting the pace in LMP2 was new signing Tom Kimber-Smith in the Greaves Motorsport Zytek. The last time Kimber-Smith raced in the Le Mans Series was in 2007, when he made a one-off appearance in the Team LNT Zytek in the final round at Silverstone. Sharing with Danny Watts, he set pole . . . in the same chassis he'll drive this weekend. The Briton had taken the seat recently vacated by the mercurial, but accident prone, Thor Christian Ebbesvik, with the Norwegian immediately finding another drive with Race Performance in their new Oreca 03 #40, also showing strongly in the hands of Ralph Meichtry.

Jonny Kane was out in the Strakka Racing HPD, narrowly beating Erdos to the tarmac, and setting the first HPD time as well, 1:55.300 being four seconds adrift of pace-setter (20 minutes gone) of Kraihamer in the #45 Boutsen Energy Oreca 03. The French chassis, based on Oreca's 2009 LMP1 machine, proving once again that it will be the benchmark for LMP2 at this stage in the year.

Tommy completed his four exploratory laps with 1:56.244 as the best he could manage on the preliminary set-up. He returned to the garage for adjustments. At this stage last year the quickest time in P2 had already been set at 1:48.1 by the Strakka Racing HPD, fitted with the naturally aspirated V8. That would stand as fastest overall on today's showing, and some indication (conditions allowing) of how the Le Mans Series pace has changed as a result of the revised regulations. Quickest overall in the session today, with half the hour completed, was Andrea Belicchi in the #13 Rebellion Lola.

Four more laps from Erdos, including a 1:55.910, and the Brazilian returned to the pitlane reporting an ongoing issue with understeer, but otherwise felt the car was performing well enough for the others to have a stint, and Mike Newton then took to the track. (The timing screens had the two names reversed, showing Newton first out, followed by Erdos.) Kane, meanwhile, had extracted 1:53.037 from the Strakka HPD to lie third, behind the #41 (Greaves Motorsport) and #40 (Race Performance).

As expected, the pace in Formula Le Mans was close to the LMP2 times, and being set during the first 30 minutes of the session by Phil Keen in the Neil Garner Motorsport #92: 1:56.909 being just a second shy of Tommy's best in the RML HPD. Also quick in FLM, Hope Racing's Chinese driver Zhang Shan Qi.

Mike did not appear to relish his session in the cockpit, first encountering one of the GT cars with what seemed to be a fuel leak, causing the track to become very slippery, and then battling with basic pace along the straights."It was as if they'd left something in the fuel vent, and every time the car went round a corner, fuel was flooding out in great bursts. If I drove within 50 yards, I was sliding all over the place. It was lethal." Despite this, he pressed on to the chequered flag.

Another P2 driver to encounter GT problems was Jonny Kane. The Strakka driver had been duelling with the Felbermayr Porsche along one of the straights, where the Porsche had the edge in outright speed. The only option remaining to the Irishman was to outbrake the 911 into the corner, which he did successfully. Unfortunately, the driver of the Porsche tried to brake as late, failed, and ended up hitting the HPD in the rear. The engineers at Strakka were then faced with a two-hour repair job.

Incidents exactly like this were widely predicted after the speed trap figures were analysed from the official test at Paul Ricard in mid-March. As a result of those figures, the experiences of LMP2 cars at Sebring, and incidents on-track today, it is believed that meetings are to be held over the coming hours to see if anything can be done to address what is both a safety and a sporting issue.

First Session - LMP2 Times

	#	o/a	Team	Car	Drivers	Session 1
1	45	4	Boutsen Energy	Oreca 03 Nissan	Kraihamer, de Crem	01:50.766
2	41	6	Greaves Motorsport	Zytek 09S	Ojjeh, Greaves, Kimber-Smith	01:51.698
3	40	7	Race Performance	Oreca 03 Judd	Frey, Meichtry, Ebbesvik	01:51.842
4	42	8	Strakka Racing	HPD ARX -01d	Leventis, Watts, Kane	01:53.637
5	46	9	TDS Racing	Oreca 03 Nissan	Beche, Thiret, Firth	01:53.685
6	39	10	Pecon Racing	Lola B11/40 Judd	Companc, Russo, Kaffer	01:54.011
7	43	11	Team RLR	MG Lola EX-265	Garofall, Phillips, Gates	01:54.995
8	36	12	RML AD Group	HPD ARX -01d	Erdos, Newton, Collins	01:55.919
1	91	13	Hope Polevision	Oreca FLM	Moro, Marroc, Shan Qi	01:56.725
2	92	14	Neil Garner M'sport	Oreca FLM	Keen, Keating, Hartshorne	01:56.909
3	93	15	Genoa Racing	Oreca FLM	Petersen, Julian, Zugel	01:57.837
4	95	16	Pegasus racing	Oreca FLM	Schultis, Simon, Schell	01:58.377
9	39	17	Extreme Limite	Norma Judd	Rosier, Luco, Basso	01:58.503
5	99	19	JMB Racing	Oreca FLM	Rodrigues, Misslin, Mennahem	01:58.720

Tyre Manufacturer denoted by:

Dunlop

Michelin

"Round one, 2011 season, and it's nice to be back racing again after a long winter break," said Tommy Erdos. "We've made lots of changes since we were here for the test, and we're still learning more every time we take the car out. That run here at the test was our first experience of the HPD package, and we're still heavily into testing mode - trying out new ideas, making changes and seeing what effect they have. Sometimes we go the right way, sometimes we don't, but in the main we're making good progress."

"This has been our first opportunity to run the car in a proper mixed-class environment, with thirty-odd cars on track, and all heading out at roughly the same time. That's made the track very busy, and has highlighted even more the power differential we're having to overcome. The car has been remarkably reliable, but it is frustrating having to content with such a power disadvantage."

Friday Second Session

The second Friday session kicked off at half-four. Tommy completed four timed installation laps, plus an "out" and an "in" lap, and then headed back to the pitlane to hand the HPD over to Ben Collins. This gave the former Stig a chance to air his newly painted helmet, complete with notification of a new personal sponsor in the form of Unipart. The car also now bears the famous motor part manufacturer's logo on the nose.

Despite the lack of straight-line speed, as illustrated by the image sequence in the right-hand panel, Ben enjoyed a full twenty minutes on track, and seemed reluctant to get out of the HPD cockpit when asked to do so . . . deciding instead to drive past the RML garage and head out for another lap. "Sorry about the pitlane thing, guys" said a sheepish Ben afterwards. Phil Barker took it in good heart, giving Ben detailed instructions for his next arrival in the pitlane. "Count to two, and then look for Rick," he suggested.

Mike wrapped up the session with another six flying laps, and while happier with finding some clearer track during his second stint in the cockpit - and no Aston spewing fuel - he remained enormously frustrated to see the team's new car only capable of seventh in LMP2, and bettered by two of the Formula Le Mans cars.

LMP2 Times, Session 2

	#	o/a	Team	Car	Drivers	Session 2
1	41	5	Greaves Motorsport	Zytek 09S	Ojjeh, Greaves, Kimber-Smith	01:50.557
2	46	6	TDS Racing	Oreca 03 Nissan	Beche, Thiret, Firth	01:50.892
3	39	7	Pecon Racing	Lola B11/40 Judd	Companc, Russo, Kaffer	01:52.186
4	40	8	Race Performance	Oreca 03 Judd	Frey, Meichtry, Ebbesvik	01:52.208
5	39	9	Extreme Limite	Norma Judd	Rosier, Luco, Basso	01:53.531
6	42	10	Strakka Racing	HPD ARX -01d	Leventis, Watts, Kane	01:54.342
1	92	11	Neil Garner M'sport	Oreca FLM	Keen, Keating, Hartshorne	01:54.583
2	91	12	Hope Polevision	Oreca FLM	Moro, Marroc, Shan Qi	01:54.716
7	36	13	RML AD Group	HPD ARX -01d	Erdos, Newton, Collins	01:54.874
3	93	14	Genoa Racing	Oreca FLM	Petersen, Julian, Zugel	01:54.967
8	43	15	Team RLR	MG Lola EX-265	Garofall, Phillips, Gates	01:55.061
4	95	16	Pegasus Racing	Oreca FLM	Schultis, Simon, Schell	01:56.261
5	99	17	JMB Racing	Oreca FLM	Rodrigues, Misslin, Mennahem	01:56.330
9	45	33	Boutsen Energy	Oreca 03 Nissan	Kraihamer, de Crem	No Time

For further high-resolution images, please see the Paul Ricard Race Gallery.