Le Mans 24 Hours Preview
The three Gulf-sponsored Aston Martin Racing LMP1 challengers fair well in the run-up to Le Mans 24 Hours.
Le Mans 24 Hours week is now well underway and the three Gulf-sponsored Aston Martin Racing LMP1 challengers have faired well thus far.
The lead up to the race has a slightly different format to previous years as the Le Mans Official Test that usually takes place at the beginning of June was cancelled this year. This has meant that the first day of qualifying, which is traditionally the Wednesday of Le Mans week, was replaced by an official six hour testing session.
Previous to this, all three of the Gulf cars had passed the intensive technical scrutineering process that takes place in the shadow of the cathedral in the centre of Le Mans town. Many people come to Le Mans for the whole of race week, which opens with the two days of scrutineering and large numbers of enthusiastic fans were there to watch the blue and orange cars go through the process.
The weather is always a key factor at Le Mans and the six-hour Wednesday practice started in dry conditions at 18.00 but, after just over an hour rain set in for the remainder of the session.
007, 008 and 009 all set times inside the top eleven – although none of the teams really had the chance to run at their ultimate pace. 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 in eighth. 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.
The session, with its mix of weather conditions gave the team the opportunity to accumulate valuable data during its first run with the 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.
Driver of the 009 Gulf car, Peter Kox summed up the session. “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 sees the two official qualifying sessions for the 2009 race – which is the 77th running of the endurance classic – with the racing itself starting at 15.00 local time on Saturday.
Eurosport offers TV coverage of qualifying and the race in its entirety for countries to which it broadcasts.
Qualifying and race commentary can be obtained on the Radio Le Mans website at http://www.radiolemans.com and the official Le Mans website http://www.lemans.org.
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