'10 LMS Finalé • Silverstone • '10 ILMC Round 1

[gwyllion]

http://www.lemans-series.com/en/s54_...Practice_1.pdf

Bernhard/Capello need to get up to speed.

[MihokS5]

i cant get it To work-whats the overall pace look like between Audi and Peugeot?

[Acid09]

Is the live timing working for anyone? I´m getting nothing..

[Victor_RO]

That's because the session only starts in about 15 minutes. Right now it's CER qualifying.

[Acid09]

Ahh, I see...the schedule is in local time, of course.

Btw: BMW 2nd in GT2...way to go!

[Mal]

Early days, I know, but good to see how close Rebellion are to the Diesels

[NightStalk3r]

Looks like Coronel has been booted to the back of the field, must have been cutting.

[Victor_RO]

Peugeot finally starting to show their hand... Minassian 2.6 seconds faster than the fastest Audi.

[Deleted]

JMW Aston's pace looks promising so far!

I wonder if Labre's horrible pace @ last races is (along with the downgraded car and average driver line-up) because they've been trying to play it too safe, in order to slowly drag that fragile Saleen to the finish lane... now that they've won the title, they have nothing to lose. At least they seem to be slightly ahead of GT2 field and some FLMs in practice, a task they haven't really archieved many times this season.

But I still think they're gonna finish at the bottom of the field on Sunday.

[Acid09]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

Peugeot finally starting to show their hand... Minassian 2.6 seconds faster than the fastest Audi.

That's what I´m talking about! I just hope they can go the distance, I don't trust both drivers completely.. Minassian had that gaffe at Silverstone two years ago and Davidson showed he can be a maniac behind the wheel at Le Mans.

I would feel a lot better if they had Lamy or Wurz as third driver to back them up.

[cmk]

I really hope we don't see a large time gap between the ultimate pace of the Audis and Peugeots. It's in nobody's interest to have a boring race.

I think Davidson and Minassian will be fine. Lamy has been impetuous on more than one occasion too... Alex Wurz would be a good stabilizing influence however; despite his F1 background he really seems to 'get' endurance racing and has an excellent temperament for it.

I don't think Lapierre/Sarrazin should be counted out either. On paper they are as strong or stronger than the 'works' lineup.

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by Acid09

Minassian had that gaffe at Silverstone two years ago and Davidson showed he can be a maniac behind the wheel at Le Mans.

Hopefully Ant can drive like a maniac without driving like a maniac (more care through traffic... at least there's no Corvettes around ).

[gwyllion]

Judging from http://www.lemans-series.com/fr/s54_...ce_2_speed.pdf Peugeot has a serious advantage in top speed: Sarrazin did 291 km/h and McNish only 283 km/h. So their superior engine power was not only down to the light, but fragile titanium con rods.

[chunder]

Seriously guys the diesels are going to have trouble, I was watching today at Abbey and Davidson went through so fast!! He hit the bump that was the old 'line' into Abbey chicane and lost the car completely, stopped the session with an Aston. The P1 guys are seriously unstable through there and it needs work for F1 MotoGP etc. Very dangerous bend at full tilt.

Audi's looked better there but ASton, Peugeot and V10 things looked very unstable, even P11's were grounding out, very poor track prep really.

[gwyllion]

EI has more pictures: paddock, free practice 1 and free practice 2

[TheNewBob]

Originally Posted by chunder

Seriously guys the diesels are going to have trouble, I was watching today at Abbey and Davidson went through so fast!! He hit the bump that was the old 'line' into Abbey chicane and lost the car completely, stopped the session with an Aston. The P1 guys are seriously unstable through there and it needs work for F1 MotoGP etc. Very dangerous bend at full tilt.

Audi's looked better there but ASton, Peugeot and V10 things looked very unstable, even P11's were grounding out, very poor track prep really.

All the more interesting for us spectators, though! I should hope that, by Sunday, they'll have found a safer way through the corner. Would be daft to keep taking such a dangerous line...?

[chernaudi]

Those bumps may be the Pug's undoing: Only the factory car did a fast time in the second session, and it was reportely involved in an accident after Davidson hit the bump. That and with his exploits at LM, I wouldn't be surprised that if a Pug DNS's this weekend that it would be him responsible for it.

And guess what: rain is forcast for tomorrow. With the 908's handling in the rain being akin to a stoned and drunk Bella Swan in 5 inch stilletos trying to walk and chew gum at the same time, Anthony might do some damage if he doesn't clam down.

[cmk]

What doesn't chernaudi have a Twilight reference for?

A 908 in the rain is good for a roll in the hay? Oh darn, mixed metaphors again!

Re: the bump, I tend to be of the school that bumps in the track are good because people need to learn to drive around them or through them without losing stability. The problem comes when people just try to drive through them, full stop. They are kind of like walls that way...

[Tom908V12]

Looks like a promising race indeed

Can't wait for tomorrow's third practice + qualifying

[gwyllion]

@chernaudi: During the Friday session of the F1 weekend a lot of drivers spun on the famous Silverstone bump, but by Sunday everybody had mastered it. So I don't think that there will be any problem.

You say that only the factory Peugeot went fast during the 2nd session. The Oreca car was faster than the 2 Audis and it did an ideal lap of 1:44.357. So at the moment Peugeot seems to have the upper hand.

Of course Audi tend to progressively improve lap times during the race weekend, because they still are learning to set up the R15+ properly.

[chernaudi]

And everyone is still learning the track! That wouldn't be much of an issue if the LMS ran on the old F1 circuit, but the new track has that bump and Audi has had the ablity in the past of getting their cars to work on the bumps (ie, Sebring). Audi tested the R15 at Sebring this year in a 28 hour endurance test, so they have some reference there.

At Paul Ricard, Audi arrived there was immediately on pace with the Oreca 908 as set up by the factoy team and in the same spec as the factory cars would've been had they showed up. And in the first session, Kristensen was a bit faster than both 908s. So Peugeot have some to learn, too. Namely how to get their car to handle the bumps and perhaps reigning Davidson in--Peugeot can ill afford to damage their factory car and be out numbered by the Audis which will likely get faster tomorrow, that is if it doesn't rain, which it will rain more than likely all day (almost certinaly the Audis will be faster then, but won't help them much for Sunday, which will likely be dry).

Combine that with the 908's J-damper system that they've never gotten to work in the rain, and it could be disasterous if Davidson continues to drive over his head and prangs the tub.

Or could the slowish Audi times in the second session be in part due to them trying to figure out what line to run to avoid/minimize the effect of the bump?

[joeb]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

Or could the slowish Audi times in the second session be in part due to them trying to figure out what line to run to avoid/minimize the effect of the bump?

It could be, or they could just be working on setup. Or they could genuinely be slower.

[Aysedasi]

I must admit I find this constant reference to Davidson's 'maniac antics' and 'reining him in' pretty amusing as if the Peugeot brass are sitting in the pits completely ignorant of what he may be doing out on the track. I doubt very much indeed that he will be 'reined in', but I do expect him to be driving very fast. Driving a racing car fast and committed shouldn't be a cause for worry - it should be what all the drivers are trying to do!

[chernaudi]

He's already spun out once this weekend trying to run qualifying laps when it wasn't really necessary (the Oreca car was no where near as fast on a flyer--their times were Audi territory--though that may be more to protect Sarazin's drivers' points lead and to assure a good finish to try to get Oreca the teams' championship. After all, Joest is only 5 points behind in that ranking and an Audi win may damage those chances). Peugeot better hope that he doesn't cause them any headaches, because Silverstone isn't Le Mans, and there isn't a ton of room for mistakes.

Peugeot know better than anyone that there's plenty of hard stuff to hit at Silverstone and that you don't have to go far to find it (al la 2008)...

And does anyone know why the Oreca car is slower realitive to the factory Pug? Running a race setup like Audi has been known to do, or was Davidson or Nic on a clear track flyer with a Q setup? Oreca's times have either been slower than at least one of the Audis or within their territory on the charts so far.

[gwyllion]

Oreca is running a slightly different aero. The small gurney on the rear fender is missing. Compare http://www.endurance-info.com/versio...Libres2_19.jpg with http://www.endurance-info.com/versio...Libres2_20.jpg Not sure if that makes a real difference.

Perhaps Davidson just had less traffic. In section 1 the Peugeots were only .3 sec apart.