Time to analyse the data

24/04/2011 18:49

Time to analyse the data

The long-awaited Test Day before the 2011 Le Mans 24 Hours has answered some of the many questions that were being asked following significant changes to the technical regulations since last season. Today’s timesheets were finally topped by the N°3 Audi, while the fastest cars in the LMP2 and LMGTE classes were the N°26 Oreca-Nissan and the N°89 Ferrari.

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| by Chris

Unsurprisingly, the today’s eight hours of practice have revealed a gap of some eight seconds between last year’s pole-winning lap (3m 19.711s) and this weekend’s best effort at Le Mans which was the 3m 27.687 posted by the N°3 Audi (Kristensen/Capello/McNish). Just how many seconds the front-runners will be able to shave off that time on race week remains to be seen…

The order at the end of the afternoon saw the three new Audi R18s, the three new Peugeot 908s and the 2010-specification Oreca-Peugeot monopolise the top seven places, with the German make appearing to have a (very) slight edge over its French rivals. However, it would be foolish to read too much into this pecking order, especially as the top-five cars were covered by a mere 0.617s when the chequered flag came out at 6pm.

Audi, Peugeot and their mutual tyre partner MICHELIN will now return to their respective bases to sift through the data they have collected during the day. They will then dial this information into their understanding of how their machines function round the full 13.629km circuit. For information, the three Audis totalled 239 laps (3,257km) and the French cars clocked up 250 laps (3,407km).

As the different runners and riders concentrated on their respective race programmes, there were few notable incidents to report, with the exception of the N°9 Peugeot which had an engine change between the two sessions. That said, the two factory-run Aston Martin prototypes (N°007 and N°009) only completed 12 laps between them after suffering with engine problems.

The LMP2 order was topped by the N°26 Signatech Nissan (Oreca 03-Nissan) which produced a lap of 3m 42.992s, while the “battle” in the LM GTE class seemed to work out in favour of the various Ferrari 458 Italias (best time for the N°89 car: 3m 59.966s), but the factory BMWs and the fastest Porsches weren’t very far behind at all.

The next major fixture in the build-up to the Le Mans 24 Hours (June 11-12) will be the Spa-Francorchamps 6 Hours in Belgium (May 7).

24 Hours of Le Mans, Audi, Peugeot, Test