'10 LMS Round 2 • Spa-Francorchamps • May 7th-9th

[Victor_RO]

We're under the '08 pole time! Seabass has done a 1:57.something already.

[mirkob]

GT1 pole time is very close to 2009 old GT1:

Spa 2009 LMS Pole: Alex Muller/Jet Alliance AM DBR9 2.17.3
Spa 2009 FIAGT warmp-up*: Bernoldi/DKR C6R 02:17.719

GT2:
Spa 2009 LMS Pole: Lieb/Felbermayr Porsche 2:21.8
Spa 2009 FIAGT warm-up*: Ragginger/BMS Porsche 02:24.267

*the time was better than pole position

[cg7aa]

Does anyone know if Eurosport will be streaming the race online for a fee?

[911targa]

Originally Posted by cg7aa

Are you watching live pictures?

this one,it works well now
http://www.lemans-series.com/en/s54_...classement.php#

[Victor_RO]

Peugeot 1-3-4, two Audis in P5-P6... so Bernhard's quali effort must have been a real banzai lap to get that car in 2nd.

[arakis]

so i guess peugeut still has an edge in dry weather conditions

[Victor_RO]

Possible, though the slowest diesel was a Peugeot... although we know that the strong point of the #1 crew is relentless race pace.

[911targa]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

Peugeot 1-3-4, two Audis in P5-P6... so Bernhard's quali effort must have been a real banzai lap to get that car in 2nd.

same situation happened to GT2 Porsches,Ferrari even did a 1-3-4-5 and there's no GT1s between them.Lieb did an excellent job,0.7 second quicker than his colleague Long.so tomorrow's rolling start must be exciting

[dxk1]

Both Saleens far down among the slower GT2s! Since they don't run in FIA-GT World Championship, it must be difficult to get the performance balancing just right.

DK

[Tom908V12]

Good job Bourdais
Nice one Bernhardt too

Great time by Lapierre also

Hard task for Gené tomorrow, starting behind McNish

[Tom87]

Originally Posted by Tom908V12

Hard task for Gené tomorrow, starting behind McNish

Agreed. Starting ahead of McNish is hard enough!

[Purist]

Let's just hope they don't use Marc as a punter; he could just look like he was a bit too optimistic into Les Combes, and that would be the job done, not that the factories would ever try anything underhanded or anything like that. Heck, if it's damp on the start, it could happen, and actually be an accident.

Oh, according to Midweek Motorsport, Dave Richards is only worth 58 million pounds; I guess the other backers of Aston Martin must have a fair few quid for them to have run THREE cars at any of the races last year.

In reply to Badger, I think the real window of opportunity for Maserati was while they were under Ferrari. Since that is no longer the case (they're under Alfa Romeo now), I'm really not sure. And I don't know of any Alfa Romeo sportscar program, private or official, since their effort with the Tipo 33 SC 12T of 1977.

[JAG]

The trouble is, the public doesn't understand this monetary discrepancy. They just know that, "It's ASTON MARTIN!", and so they EXPECT that marque to perform against anyone, period. Dave Richards knows this, and thus, knows the brand name simply can't afford too many black eyes, so he does his best to avoid that happening, which is what ANY "good businessman" is going to do in this day and age, regardless of the manufacturer.

Hopefully Aston Martin are just saving budget for their 2011 car.

I'm sure Aston Martin enthusiasts and fans see far more credit in being best of the rest, causing the occasional upset, rather than ducking out of the competition.

[chernaudi]

Timo's time is even more impressive when one considers that the R15s are still basically in an LM areo trim, and that he was one of the guys who bascially hated the R15 last year.

However, the Audis also probably ran a race setup like at Paul Ricard in qualifying, and generally run race laps close to what they do in qualifying if it's dry. I don't expect the Pugs to fall like rocks from Q time, but they'll likely drop off more than Audi if the past is anything to go by.

However, rain is predicted for tomorrow as far as being a near certinaty for on and off rain. Let's see if Audi do an about face like at PLM last year and bolt on some high downforce bodywork to take advantage of the conditions, as it almost certinaly would've helped them even more than what they've done with the chassis setup. At least it will be reasonably mild compared to Friday.

[manthey]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

Timo's time is even more impressive when one considers that the R15s are still basically in an LM areo trim, and that he was one of the guys who bascially hated the R15 last year.

However, the Audis also probably ran a race setup like at Paul Ricard in qualifying, and generally run race laps close to what they do in qualifying if it's dry. I don't expect the Pugs to fall like rocks from Q time, but they'll likely drop off more than Audi if the past is anything to go by.

However, rain is predicted for tomorrow as far as being a near certinaty for on and off rain. Let's see if Audi do an about face like at PLM last year and bolt on some high downforce bodywork to take advantage of the conditions, as it almost certinaly would've helped them even more than what they've done with the chassis setup. At least it will be reasonably mild compared to Friday.

Perfect analysis,let's see how much the rain will change the balance audi vs peugeot

[airbusA346]

Minassian will not race tomorrow according to DSC.

Tom.

[chernaudi]

I had already read that Nic was injured as result of a training accident. From what I've heard, it's not as serious as TK's injury(which he still has some minor effects from, but hasn't effected how he drives), or the ACL that Denny Hamlin tore and had to have surgery on after the Martinsville NASCAR Sprint Cup race(which he won, and getting that fixed has markedly improved his performance).

Unfortunatly, Tom and Denny hurt themselves early this year, and Tom had a lot of time to recover, and Denny is improving rapidly by the day. Nic had the misfortune to injure himself just before the Spa 1000K. Werner raced at Sebring in '09 with busted ribs, and he did only 1 double stint because of it, so it's probably not worth it for Nic to race and risk aggrivating that injury.

[pach233]

Just making sure so I set my alarm correctly, race will start at 5:30 Eastern Time?

[HORNDAWG]

Yes, the race is scheduled for 11:30am CEST (GMT+2).







L.P.

[Birddog07]

Audi not looking so bad. One car was the drivers first lap all day, and TK's fast flyer was spoiled by yellows.

http://www.planetlemans.com/2010/05/...ess-rehearsal/

The first Audi in 2nd is .6 off the pole position Pug, next two in 5th and 6th are .1-2 off the pace of the other two factory Pugs, with one more Pug (Matmut?) .2 behind in 7th.

Fastest GT1 is only 3 seconds quicker than fastest GT2. Come on ACO, that is rediculous.

http://www.planetlemans.com/2010/05/...ifying-report/

[HORNDAWG]

Originally Posted by Birddog07

Fastest GT1 is only 3 seconds quicker than fastest GT2. Come on ACO, that is rediculous.

Me thinks one is placing blame in the wrong place for the pace of the FIA legal GT-1 class!!






L.P.

[Purist]

And as someone pointed out, the GT1 pole is less than half a second off of last year's pole for the FIA GT race at Spa. The reduced gap speaks far more for how much GT2 has been allowed to get faster, and even more so in the case of GT3.

[Holt]

Audi shouldn't get too confident just yet (if you can say confidence is staying within a second of the 908s)

The way this race weekend is unfolding matches Spa 2008 almost perfectly.

First practice in 2008 Audi is way behind, 2-4 seconds, just like this weekend. Next few '08 practices they're only a few tenths to a second behind, again, just like this weekend.

For qualifying at Spa in '08 a R10 split the two 908s, just like now. In '08 the 908 had the pole over the Audi by 6 tenths, today the 908 has the pole over the Audi by 6 tenths.

History usually repeats itself but Audi can create its own future.

Needless to say we all know what happened in the race and then later at Le Mans. Point is, its still too early. Even after the race here shortly it will still be too early to say who has the edge because Le Man and Spa are two different beasts.

Audi knows they were beat like a drume down the mulsanne last year with the high downforce R15, with the R15+ the car appears to be a more pure low downforce car. It will be interesting to see how that combo works at Le Mans. I think the car will gain time over the old R15 on the Mulsanne, but how it will handle the Porsche curves, stability under braking etc is yet to be seen. I believe I read a comment that stated the R15+ is difficult to drive in it's low downforce Le Mans aero. The '09 R15 was very twitchy, and seemed very nervous at Le Mans, resulting in a lot of offs by the Audi drivers. We'll see.

Also I find it rediculous that the Le Mans series format does not really allow the cars to get their best qualifying times, they should consider splitting qualifying up between the LMP and GT cars. Also happy to see the Ford GTs are competitive

EDIT: Looking at the sector times you can certainly see that the 908s are high downforce and the R15s are low downforce, the Audis are quicker in sectors 1 and 3, because of the straights in those sectors, while the Peugeots are quicker in sector 2, the twistest portion of the circuit.

According to "ideal lap" qualifying would be
1. Peugeot
2. Audi
3. Peugeot
4. Audi
5. Peugeot
6. Audi
7. Peugeot

Should be a good race

[HORNDAWG]

right.

Also the Qing sessions are separate!









L.P.

[Bentley03]

Originally Posted by Holt

.....they should consider splitting qualifying up between the LMP and GT cars.

They do, it's only at Le Mans that they qualify together.....or have I misunderstood what you were saying?


(Oops, missed H'dawg's reply above......)