After a long wait in the summer heat in France the cars took to the track in for pre-race qualifying just as the rain started to fall. Yokohama ADVAN was put to the serious test in horrendous conditions including sections of track that are normal road sections which became like an ice rink as the water struck for the first time in over a month. Four cars are competing on ADVANs – two Courage LC70s fielded by Courage Competition and two Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs in the hands of Team Taisan Advan and Seikel Motorsports. The torrential rain gave all Yokohama drivers the opportunity to try wet tyres and all four teams chose to test different degrees of tread depth.

The conditions were so bad that even the deepest grooves couldn’t deflect the water fast enough and sure enough the no.12 Courage, being driven by Alex Frei, was caught out and took a spin, damaging the car too badly for it to take part in the second session. The key was to put in sensible steady lap times allowing for the extreme water on the track. Qualifying continues with two more two-hour sessions tomorrow (Thursday 15 June) with the race itself starting at 5pm local time in France on Saturday 17 June.  

Gregor Fisken, No. 12 Courage Competition “I had the wet tyres with the deeper tread blocks and they were impressive. Alex [Frei] went out with the other tyres. I think he proved that we needed the deeper treads! Yokohama has got some softer tyres for us to try. They just keep pulling more tyres out of the hat!" Claude Surmont, Courage Competition “The conditions were just so difficult we had to put in the laps carefully. The wet track after being dry for so long was just very very greasy and we needed every bit of tread we had.” Akira Shiraishi, Yokohama Motorsport “Even the Porsches were aquaplaning with the deepest tread pattern tyres – there was just so much water on the track. It was very difficult for all of the teams out there and hopefully we’ll see some more representative race action tomorrow.”