The fight-back begins!

07/09/07 - Donington Collective testing

Since the start of the season, Tech 1 Racing and Equipe Verschuur have dominated the Eurocup Mégane Trophy, and the other teams have clearly had enough Today they hit back with a bang, as Fabrice Walfisch (Team Lompech Sport), Ludovic Badey (TDS) and Maxime Martin (Boutsen Energy Racing) took the top three times in two sessions of collective testing at Donington Park.

For once, the best times of the day came in the morning. The afternoon session saw the red flag brought out four times as Matthieu Cheruy (TDS), Wim Beelen (Equipe Verschuur) and Michaël Rossi (Racing for Belgium) crashed off, which meant not everyone was able to improve on their earlier times.

Fabrice Walfisch was the stand-out performer early on. Things seem to have clicked into place for the former F3000 driver since he finished second at the Hungaroring: "That first podium finish was the result of all the work we'd put in since the beginning of the season. The team was well prepared for this meeting in the workshop. We tried out a lot of new ideas on the car today, and they worked well,. so I'm enjoying my driving more and more. Everything seems to be falling into place. We came out on top today, so we can be aiming for victory, but for me the main thing is still to have a good time with the team. If we do things properly, the results will look after themselves."

With the second-fastest time of the day, Ludovic Badey continued his recent resurgence in form: «I really like this track. I did well in 2005 but I wasn't able to race here last year. I still managed to get my bearings back pretty quickly, though. I feel comfortable racing here and the car is in great shape. Hopefully,  I'll make it back onto the podium this weekend!»

In third place, just 11 thousandths of a second behind Badey, Maxime Martin was also satisfied with his day's work. "I drove well this morning, but I had a bit of a bad patch at the start of the afternoon session. Once I woke up again, I put some decent times in! I think I can do well this weekend. We're going to carry on working on our pit stops this evening, as they have been a weakness for us up to now. I've performed well since the start of the season, but it's about time for me to take the next step and win a race...."

Having been eclipsed by his teammates so far this season, Matthieu Lahaye was Tech 1 Racing's fastest driver today. Less than a tenth of a second adrift of Walfisch, the youngster from Brittany is optimistic: "It wasn't always easy, particularly this afternoon with the four red flags, which always seem to come at the wrong time! You can see that the other teams have improved a lot, which is great, because it forces us to push ourselves to the limit. We'll be working hard to close the gap in performance, but we already know what kind of things we need to do". Behind Lahaye, Pedro Petiz and Dimitri Enjalbert are ready to pounce.

Eighth and ninth respectively behind Ralph Meichtry (Race Performance), Grégory Franchi and Bernhard Ten Brinke were Equipe Verschuur's leading drivers. The top 10 was completed by Giuseppe Ciro, who is racing alone this weekend for Oregon Team.

POS NUMBER DRIVER TEAM LAP TIME GAP_FIRST KPH LAPS  1 20 Ludovic BADEY TDS 15 1:35.667 - 151.4 23   2 11 Maxime MARTIN Boutsen Energy Racing 24 1:35.832 +0.165 151.1 25   3 17 Fabrice WALFISCH Team Lompech Sport 14 1:35.857 +0.190 151.1 22   4 32 Pedro PETIZ Tech 1 Racing 1 22 1:35.866 +0.199 151.1 23   5 31 Dimitri ENJALBERT Tech 1 Racing 2 6 1:35.999 +0.332 150.9 19   6 8 Ralph MEICHTRY Race performance 17 1:36.248 +0.581 150.5 27   7 72 Greg FRANCHI Equipe Verschuur 2 24 1:36.276 +0.609 150.4 24   8 1 Matthieu LAHAYE Tech 1 Racing 1 21 1:36.307 +0.640 150.4 21   9 7 Bernhard TEN BRINKE Equipe Verschuur 1 15 1:36.332 +0.665 150.3 19   10 22 Michaël ROSSI Racing For Belgium 14 1:36.396 +0.729 150.2 20   11 14 Giuseppe CIRO Oregon Team 23 1:36.396 +0.729 150.2 24   12 5 Mike VERSCHUUR Equipe Verschuur 1 14 1:36.556 +0.889 150.0 24   13 23 Carlo VAN DAM Racing For Belgium 12 1:36.814 +1.147 149.6 22   14 21 Matthieu CHERUY TDS 8 1:36.821 +1.154 149.6 15   15 9 Jean Philippe MADONIA TDS 19 1:37.022 +1.355 149.3 23   16 33 Sébastien DHOUAILLY Tech 1 Racing 2 18 1:37.154 +1.487 149.1 22   17 12 Andreas MAYERL Sesterheim Racing 6 1:37.186 +1.519 149.0 22   18 16 Jean Charles MIGINIAC Team Lompech Sport 24 1:39.236 +3.569 145.9 25   19 6 Wim BEELEN Equipe Verschuur 2 6 1:40.223 +4.556 144.5 22  

POS NUMBER DRIVER TEAM LAP TIME GAP_FIRST KPH LAPS  1 17 Fabrice WALFISCH Team Lompech Sport 15 1:35.539 - 151.6 27   2 20 Ludovic BADEY TDS 24 1:35.663 +0.124 151.4 26   3 11 Maxime MARTIN Boutsen Energy Racing 22 1:35.674 +0.135 151.4 23   4 1 Matthieu LAHAYE Tech 1 Racing 1 20 1:35.747 +0.208 151.3 20   5 32 Pedro PETIZ Tech 1 Racing 1 23 1:36.039 +0.500 150.8 25   6 31 Dimitri ENJALBERT Tech 1 Racing 2 23 1:36.240 +0.701 150.5 24   7 8 Ralph MEICHTRY Race performance 16 1:36.380 +0.841 150.3 16   8 21 Matthieu CHERUY TDS 27 1:36.413 +0.874 150.2 28   9 5 Mike VERSCHUUR Equipe Verschuur 1 27 1:36.473 +0.934 150.1 29   10 23 Carlo VAN DAM Racing For Belgium 23 1:36.479 +0.940 150.1 23   11 14 Giuseppe CIRO Oregon Team 23 1:36.497 +0.958 150.1 25   12 72 Greg FRANCHI Equipe Verschuur 2 15 1:36.675 +1.136 149.8 28   13 22 Michaël ROSSI Racing For Belgium 19 1:36.891 +1.352 149.5 21   14 33 Sébastien DHOUAILLY Tech 1 Racing 2 21 1:36.894 +1.355 149.5 23   15 7 Bernhard TEN BRINKE Equipe Verschuur 1 24 1:37.106 +1.567 149.1 28   16 9 Jean Philippe MADONIA TDS 14 1:37.757 +2.218 148.2 23   17 12 Andreas MAYERL Sesterheim Racing 25 1:37.838 +2.299 148.0 25   18 16 Jean Charles MIGINIAC Team Lompech Sport 22 1:39.049 +3.510 146.2 27   19 6 Wim BEELEN Equipe Verschuur 2 20 1:39.431 +3.892 145.7 23