ORECA dominates Ricard test

The team's own petrol-engined contender, the ORECA-AIM 01, ended up fastest in the hands of Soheil Ayari, while Olivier Panis set the second best time of the day in the ORECA-run Peugeot 908 turbodiesel.

Ayari's best of 1m43.259s was just over a second quicker than team-mate Panis on 1m44.292s.

ORECA boss Hugues de Chaunac insisted that times were not important on a bitterly cold day in the south of France.

"The was our car's first run on Dunlop slicks and the time shows the potential, but everyone was being cautious because of the conditions," he said. "Don't forget that this time last year we were running in the 1m40-41s bracket."

Ayari is sharing the AIM-engined ORECA with Didier Andre and Andy Meyrick over the course of the two-day test. Both are in contention for a seat in the car at the Le Mans 24 Hours in June.

De Chaunac explained that the his team was still familiarising itself with its Peugeot 908 HDi, which arrived at its factory last week. The team also gave new-signing Loic Duval, who will share the Peugeot with Panis and Nicolas Lapierre at Le Mans and the eight-hour LMS race at Ricard next month, his first laps in the car.

"We are still learning and doing a lot of long-runs," he said. "It also made sense to give Loic a lot of time in the car."

Third fastest was the Rebellion Racing Lola-Judd coupe in the hands of Marco Andretti, who was making his test debut with the Anglo-Swiss team. Fourth best was the sister car in which team regular Andrea Belicchi is joined by Jean-Christophe Boullion and Guy Smith.

Olivier Pla headed the LMP2 times in the Portuguese ASM team's Zytek. Bas Leinders was quickest in GT1 at the wheel of the Marc VDS Ford, while AF Corse Ferrari driver Gianmaria Bruni topped the times in GT2.