The final results can
be found at www.fiawec.com
It is good to report
that around 14,000 members of the public turned out in force to sit
in the sun and watch some top of the range motor sport.
During a short pause in
hostilities before the start we had a chat with Paul Truswell.. the
amazing combination of voice and analytical brain that we know so
well from Le Mans. Not surprisingly he had a few thoughts… He
suggested that it would need a simply huge c*ck up for Audi to lose
this race, in fact it would probably take a huge c*ck up to keep them
off the top three steps of the podium. So why no Toyotas in the
frame? The ‘new’ #7 car is geared up more for Le Mans in June and
is brand new.. the #8 car on the other hand is now out of date. As
far as Le Mans goes Toyota will probably miss out tactically by not
having three cars to deploy at La Sarthe. We also discussed LM P2 and
how hard it was to keep up with them during the race and on TV. The
problem sort of lies with the fact that as far as sponsors are
concerned there are no really big, distinctive ones that highlight
the cars, which makes them hard to identify in the midst of the
action ( and during the TV edit) Equally while they have some very
experienced and quite famous pilots they are short of big name
endurance super-stars. We all agree that despite all this they do
give us some cracking racing even if goes unnoticed for some of the
time. In GT Porsche may well continue to struggle until they can get
their hands on the new 991 engine ( good old Porsche .. keep us
guessing on these numbers!). There was only one safety car session
and it caused a couple of teams problems not just with pit lane
access but also with getting stuck behind the safety car.
The LM P1 lead sort of
‘went with service’ for a sizeable part of the race. The analysts
amongst us were told that the lead changed around 13 times. The #7
Toyota took up the lead several times occasionally on merit but
generally during the pits stops. All the same the new car did lead
the race until that is with three hours or so to go it wound up in
the pits and expired with what was clearly a brake overheating
problem but we think that may have been related to the ‘Hybrid’
systems. The Toyotas would appear to be able to match the Audis,
broadly speaking, on pace and apparently beat them in the fuel
consumption stakes. As you may have gathered we are fans of the
Rebellion Racing Team, the only problem is that being ‘petrol
powered’ they have nobody much to race against apart from each
other! Even so this is a highly professional and superbly managed
team… now .. have a think ..what if …?! The #25 Strakka Racing
Morgan Nissan is not truly competitive but they are heading for Le
Mans come what may! Back with Audi they did suffer with a puncture on
the #1 car but in the true tradition of Audi it didn't appear to
faze them at all and the team carried on in its unflustered way.
Incidentally the #3 Audi was running in ‘Le Mans’ specification
which didn't suit Spa but the casual onlooker might be hard pressed
to spot the difference. The new fashion is ‘Long Tails’ everybody
is trying them, maybe as a tribute to the Porsche 917 Lang Heck!
In LM P2 it goes almost
without saying that we will see some close racing and today was no
exception. It was eventually won by #49 Pecom Racing Oreca 03. This
was probably due in no small way to presence of one Mr Nicolas
Minassian who is immensely quick. Even so they came home just 12
seconds ahead of the #24 OAK Racing Morgan Nissan which was only 16
seconds ahead of the third placed #38 Jota Zytek Z11SN. The Lotus
T128 fared much better than they had done at Silverstone and despite
the #31 car hitting problems but still finishing the #31 car saw the
chequered flag. All the LM P2 cars finished the race except the #25
Delta ADR which crashed out. They are quick, reliable and well worth
watching when they get to Le Mans.
For
Aston Martin things didn’t pan out as well here as they had at
Silverstone. We did wonder if the other teams might have been holding
back at Silverstone. Maybe they were because this time in LMGTE
Ferraris came alive with the two AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italia’s
looking much more dangerous in ‘Pro’ . This was helped by the
Astons getting caught out by the safety car. Porsche didn’t have a
great weekend, it was summed up rather well when, with about 45mins
to go , the #51 AF Corse Corse Ferrari punted the #91 Porsche up the
back end and took it out of the race! With around 40 mins to go a
flurry of stop go penalties kicked in after that safety car business
hours ago. This involved the two factory Aston Martins #97 and 98.
Team boss David Richards reckoned it was all entirely legal so we
suspect this might involve a protest form Aston Martin Racing.
In ‘Am’ it was
Ferrari again and they did well with the #81 Ferrari 458 Italia seing
off the #95 Aston . The #50 Chevrolet had a steady race and came home
3rd, again ahead of an Aston Martin, this time the #96
car. So not quite the spectacular performance we saw at Silverstone.
But everybody is now heading for Le Mans so all bets are off !
After 168 laps only
three cars retired from the race , these were the #7 Toyota, The #25
Delta-ADR which crashed out after 25 laps and the unfortunate Patrick
Pilet in the #91 Porsche who crashed out after being hit by #51
Ferrari driven by Bruni. As a curtain raiser for
Le Mans? Well .. guess what Audi do look incredibly strong but Toyota
have the pace and the economy and maybe with a bit of luck they might
see the podium.
The final results can
be found at www.fiawec.com