The teams entered in the Formula Le Mans Cup were all at the Castellet circuit on Tuesday 30th June for a second collective test session. Boutsen Energy Racing, DAMS, Hope Pole Vision Racing, Ibanez Racing Service, Exagon and Applewood-LD Autosport all came to the south of France for their first test session since the Le Mans 24-Hours curtain raiser event. The ORECA engineers removed the 3000-rpm limit on the engines before this session in compliance with the sporting regulations. The temperature was over 32°C! The track used was the 03A, the 3.793 km layout on the circuit.
All the Formula Le Mans Cup runners were present beginning with the current leaders Gavin Cronje and Nico Verdonck. The two DAMS drivers spent a lot of time on the track and were very satisfied with the work carried out during the day. “We tested different setups during the session, and we finished the day 2/10s off the best time even though we didn’t use new tyres unlike some of our rivals. It’s a good omen. We’re going to analyse all the information to see how we can get the best out of what we’ve learned today between now and the end of the season. Even if we’re leading the championship, we’re hoping to carry on winning in the coming races as staying in front is the best way of showing that we’re quick,” smiled Nico Verdonck.
David Zollinger arrived from the Lausitzring where he won at the weekend in the VdeV Challenge, and only snatched a few hours sleep before going out in the late morning. “We lost some time in the morning putting a new bonnet on the car, so we didn’t run during the first three hours. We used only a single set of tyres today. Despite the fact that we did less running than our rivals in the morning, we still managed to set the fifth-quickest time in the late afternoon, which isn’t too bad: all the more so as we found a few interesting setup leads on the car. We were also able to test the new Michelin tyres. I felt that the tyre worked well straight away, which is good from a safety point of view so it’s a step in the right direction.”
Like DAMS and LD Autosport the Boutsen Energy team was also asked to test a new tyre. “We had a good test day on the Bugatti circuit before the Le Mans event. We ran all day without meeting any problems. We’re still learning about the car thanks to new setups. We also used the session to test the new tyre from Michelin on which the temperature of the rubber increases much more quickly. The long-term performance of the tyre seems to be the same, but for gentlemen drivers that could make a difference if the problem of bringing the tyre up to the right temperature has disappeared,” said Johan-Boris Scheier credited with the quickest time overall at the end of the day. The Hope PoleVision Racing team covered a total of 287 laps making it one of the busiest during the session, and also one of the quickest as the Beche-Makela duo set the second-best time behind Scheier. Benoït Morand was unable to hide his delight at the end of the day! “Our programme was simple, run through the greatest number of setups possible to gather a huge amount of information. We’ve achieved our aim as we did a lot of running, and that’s going to help us for the rest of the season. We now know much more about the car and we understand it a lot better. Valle, Mathias, Christophe and Natacha all set good times today and that boosts our confidence for the coming races.”
The Spanish team Deportivo, which would like to invest in the Formula Le Mans Cup, was also on hand to have its first taste of the car. Four Spanish drivers relayed each other at the wheel of the test mule, and the team may make its debut at the next round in Portugal.
Among the drivers present was Xavier Pompidou with Abergel as well as Jérôme Policand who came to test the car with several friends.
Apart from a minor off by Gabriel Abergel towards the end of the day there were no incidents during the test.
As no more testing is allowed until the next race, the Formula Le Mans Cup teams will meet up in Portugal at the end of the month on the Algarve circuit for the third round of the season. They will have an additional 30 minutes practice at this event.
Morning times :
timingdata30am1
Afternoon times :
timingdata30pm1
