'10 LMS Round 1 • Castellet • April 9-11

[911targa]

we could expect fighting between GT2 cars and Saleen tomorrow.maybe the Green X Challenge winner would be a GT2 car this year.

[Bentley03]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

It's back now, they had some connection problems, I guess.

Still having problems......SHOUT HINDY!

[Victor_RO]

Pug and AMR Lola still in the pits.

[courageous]

Originally Posted by Bentley03

SHOUT HINDY!

doesn't normally need any encouragment for that.

Dindo going out for a second run, still no poojoe.

[CTD]

The Oreca 01 is interesting fast! (compared to Pug and Audi!)

[Victor_RO]

Lapierre doing the quali!

[courageous]

Sounds like we are going to keep getting the sandbagging that we saw at Sebring, I doubt any of the tops cars are going to show their full hand until after LM.
I hope this doesn't get too anyoying.

[CTD]

Lapierre pole
1.41.195

[Victor_RO]

41.1 for the Pug, P1 at the moment.

[911targa]

the JMB's Oreca is a bit slow..even slower than their F430(i guess,but the F430 won't come this year)

[Bentley03]

This is a fascinating session!

[Victor_RO]

Strakka 2.5 seconds faster than anything else in LMP2... at least with Danny Watts driving.


Mucke puts #009 into 3rd.

[CTD]

Lapierre is 0,5 sec faster than Dindo!
Audi is clearly sandbagging.

[courageous]

The Acura is miles ahead of the other P2 cars, that doesn't bode well for a good race either.

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by courageous

The Acura is miles ahead of the other P2 cars, that doesn't bode well for a good race either.

And it's a track similar to Le Mans in some aspects... so it doesn't bode well for the great race either. I think Highcroft is going to wash out LMP2 in June.

However, the gap between the Pug and the Audi is a good indication that Le Mans will be a tremendous fight in LMP1 possibly up to the last minutes.

[911targa]

the fastest and second quickest car in each class will start at the same row in their class(P2 in 9th&10th,GT2 in 27th&28th),looking forward to seeing the rolling start tomorrow!

[CTD]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

However, the gap between the Pug and the Audi is a good indication that Le Mans will be a tremendous fight in LMP1 possibly up to the last minutes.

There is no way to say that, as Audi clearly was sandbagging, and so was Oreca (Dindo and Lapierre is not the fastest of their drivers).
The first real indication we may get tomorrow, but otherwise first at Spa.

[Victor_RO]

Well they are close on pace at the moment, that's for sure, so for now it does look that Le Mans will be a balanced fight that might last for the whole race. But yeah, Spa will be a clearer picture with the full squads against each other.

[porsche91722]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

And it's a track similar to Le Mans in some aspects... so it doesn't bode well for the great race either. I think Highcroft is going to wash out LMP2 in June.

If they can go the distance.

[AUTOLEGEND]

Bit off topic but has anyone a link to the official press pics from Paul Ricard?

[CTD]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

Well they are close on pace at the moment, that's for sure, so for now it does look that Le Mans will be a balanced fight that might last for the whole race. But yeah, Spa will be a clearer picture with the full squads against each other.

I wouldn't use the word "Are" as we do not know how much Audi was sandbagging!.
Audi has no reason to show full strength if not necessary.

[tux1234]

Hope the Gt2 Aston has a great run tomorrow

[Tom908V12]

Fantastic run by Nicolas Lapierre

[dxk1]

Most surprising thing to me, as was posted above, was the Acura smoking the rest of the P2 field.

DK

[isynge]

Originally Posted by courageous

The Acura is miles ahead of the other P2 cars, that doesn't bode well for a good race either.

We shouldn't be all that surprised by this (even although let's be honest, we probably are), the Acura has been shown to be a match for an RS Spyder - and we'd expect one of them to be the class of this or any LMP2 field.

That sort of gap however really does surprise me. I haven't up to now seen any evidence that the Acura is that much faster than a well sorted Lola - based on the evidence with Dyson last year - to say nothing of the Zyteks.

I know I'm a perennial optimist, but it's a long race tomorrow and I'd be genuinely surprised if the Strakka car was over 2 seconds a lap faster than everything else consistently over 8 hours. I'm sticking with the call I made in the predictions thread - I see Quifel or Oak winning this one after 8 hours.