Photo Credit: FIA-ACO
Although Porsche won last year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans and has more overall wins in the 83-year history of the race than another other marque, it is fellow German manufacturer Audi who has been the benchmark in the famous French endurance challenge since the start of the current century. On Sunday, the current Circuit de la Sarthe “dynasty” claimed the top headline as Lucas di Grassi led the charts on the official test day at the 8.45 mile mix public roads and permanent road course in advance of the big race in less than two weeks.
The Brazilian, who spent one season on the Formula One World Championship circus with the now-defunct Virgin Racing team, posted a three minutes, 21.375 second pass in the afternoon testing window, good enough to place the No. 8 Audi R18 e-tron Quattro coupe ahead of a pair Team Porsche 919 Hybrids. The best Porsche lap, run by Mark Webber in the morning efforts, was nine tenths of a second off di Grassi’s personal best, however not as daunting as a time delta as it sounds considering the length of the circuit, as opposed to the shorter permanent race circuits more commonly seen in the remainder of the FIA World Endurance Championship sports car events.
While Porsche and Audi claimed the four fastest overall times, Toyota Gazoo Racing who took the overall pole position at Le Mans in 2014, were once again in the role of trailers among the LMP1 Hybrids. Anthony Davidson posted the fastest lap for the new TS050 Hybrid challenger, however still a second and a half off the lead Audi. Although not as big a handicap as was faced by the Japanese marque a year ago, an uphill climb to join the upfront chase in two weeks appears likely once again.
Among the non-LMP1 hybrids, Rebellion Racing’s pair of ORECA-designed R-One coupes went 1-2 as was expected, but with perhaps a bigger time gap between themselves and rivals ByKolles Racing. Alexandre Imperatori’s fastest lap for Rebellion, was six seconds quicker on the 8.45 mile layout as opposed to Pierre Kaffer’s best effort in the CLM P1/01 coupe utilized by the Colin Kolles-run squad.
In LMP2, Eurasia Motorsport continued its marked improvement by leading the test day on Sunday, not bad for a team that has yet to participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Not given an invite to the big show a year ago, Le Mans-specialist Tristan Gommendy showed the Phillipines-based squad is a contender by posting a three minutes, 36.690 second pass late on Sunday, nearly a second faster than the remainder of the lower prototype division. The No. 33 ORECA 05 coupe runners feature a solid driving team with Gommendy joined by Holland’s Nick De Brunn and the underrated Chinese pilot Kevin Pu Jin Jin.
Prior to Eurasia’s late heroics, Signatech Alpine’s re-badged ORECA 05 was fastest for most of Sunday in the hands of another talented Frenchman in the form of Nicolas Lapierre. Le Mans regular victory threats G-Drive Racing claimed the next two places on the list, with their ORECA 05 entry in the hands of Rene Rast in position number three and their 2014 class winning Gibson 015S open top in fourth, thanks to Le Mans rookie Jake Dennis from the UK.
Among the American LMP2 entrants, Michael Shank Racing’s Ligier JS P2 coupe with Honda power was the highest placed with Laurens Vanthoor clocking in the eighth fastest LMP2 lap of the day. Daytona and Sebring overall winners Extreme Speed Motorsports were 13th and 21st with Ligier-Nissan coupes, while Krohn Racing and Riley Motorsports-Murphy Prototypes were 16th and 17th respectively in the lower prototype division on Sunday.
In GTE-Pro, the Corvette Racing/Porsche North America duel at Circuit de la Sarthe appears set in stone for the moment as the IMSA WeatherTech Championship arch rivals split the top four times in the class on Sunday. Spain’s Antonio Garcia was the quickest of the day, posting a three minutes, 55.121 second lap in the No. 63 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R. Garcia and co-drivers Jan Magnussen and Ricky Taylor are looking to bounce back from disappointment suffered a year ago, when a qualifying crash forced them to withdraw before the race.
Porsche’s pair of 911 RSRs with defending overall race winner Nick Tandy and grand touring veteran Fred Makowiecki were second and third on the chart, with the sister Corvette of Oliver Gavin completing the group. Only seven tenths of a second separated first through fourth in the division.
Finally in GTE-Amateur, Larbre Competition squad placed a year-old Corvette C7.R on top at three minutes, 57.999 seconds. Le Mans rookie Nick Catsburg posted the lap, an interesting feat considering the Dutchman currently does not have a ride in two weeks time for the event. Catsburg and fellow free-agent Jean-Phillipe Belloc were called in by Larbre team boss Jack Lecmote after the team’s regular driver Paolo Ruberti was ruled out for the 24 Hours of Le Mans due to a back injury suffered in a non-related testing crash this past week. Lecomte so far has not decided who will join Yutaka Yamagishi and Pierre Ragues for the main event.
Behind the Larbre Corvette, Ferrari 458 Italias claimed the next four positions on the GTE-Amateur timing sheet, led by AF Corse’s Matt Griffin and Scuderia Corsa’s Townsend Bell.
Stay tuned to OnPitRoad.com this week for a further outlook toward the 24 Hours of Le Mans by sports car contributor Matt Embury.
