Le Mans practice
The three Aston Martin crews have all completed the necessary running to go through to qualifying at Le Mans on Thursday, after the opening six-hour free practice session at La Sarthe.
The practice session, which lasted from 6pm until midnight, was the first opportunity that teams had to drive the legendary Le Mans circuit, in both daylight and night-time conditions. The weather throughout the evening was wet and dry with intermittent rain, making grip levels extremely inconsistent.
Nonetheless, according to the rules of the Le Mans 24 Hours, all the drivers had to complete three laps of night-time running to be sure of taking their place during qualifying – which is scheduled for Thursday evening. Furthermore the ‘rookie’ drivers at Le Mans had to complete 10 clear laps in order to be allowed to participate in the race.
With conditions extremely difficult, the priority for Aston Martin was to get through the evening safely and accumulate valuable data during the team’s first run with its new LMP1 car on the Le Mans circuit. Although there could be some rain during qualifying, the weather for the race is expected to be largely dry. This meant that the team concentrated on finding a versatile set-up that would work well in a variety of conditions.
At the end of the six-hour session the 008 car crewed by Anthony Davidson (GB), Darren Turner (GB) and Jos Verstappen (NL) was the quickest of the three works Aston Martins with a time of 3m35.996; putting the crew in a provisional eighth overall. The 007 car, driven by Jan Charouz (CZ), Tomas Enge (CZ) and Stefan Mücke (DE), was ninth with a time of 3m36.732s. Car 009 – crewed by Stuart Hall (GB), Peter Kox (NL) and Harold Primat (CH) – was 11th with a time of 3m38.490s.
009 driver quotes:
Harold Primat: “Everything was fine and we used the session to work on the set-up. For example, on the Mulsanne straight – which is normally a public road – the car kept on bottoming out, so we had to raise the suspension settings slightly. Mixed weather conditions actually seem to reduce the gap we have to the top diesel-powered cars, which could be encouraging for the race.”
Stuart Hall: “The car has everything I expected of it: the feeling was good and I felt comfortable straight away. I used the practice session just to familiarise myself with my new surroundings and the team, which is outstandingly professional. The conditions were very difficult, but the important thing to bear in mind is that they are the same for everyone.”
Peter Kox: “As I had so little time in the car before coming here, this session was very important for me to increase my experience. The track was very familiar, but there are always new things to learn with a new car and new team mates – particularly when the conditions are as inconsistent as they were tonight. But we achieved everything that we wanted to and had no real problems, which is the main thing.”
Today’s qualifying for the 77th Le Mans 24 Hours on the 13–14 June takes place over the course of two sessions, from 7pm until 9pm and 10pm to midnight.
