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Le Mans 24H Test Day Results

And so it begins: one of the most anticipated motorsports event of the years, the Le Mans 24 Hours, has taken off with the official Test Day held at the French circuit today, ahead of the race on June 18

The two, four-hour sessions offered the teams the only opportunity to work on car set-up and driver orientation before they run again in qualifying, in ten days.

With rain disrupting the afternoon session, the fastest laps were all set in the morning session, and at the end of the day, the two Pescarolo Judds were the fastest of the 50-car field.

The trio of Emmanuel Collard, Jean-Christophe Boullion and Erik Comas lapped the 13.65kms circuit in three minutes and 32.468 seconds, with Collard stating confidently that there was more to come from his car.

"For sure we could go quicker," the Frenchman said. "Today we were just using race tyres, and we were quick. If we had used qualifying tyres, we would definitely have been quicker - maybe 2 seconds. I was very happy with the set-up, and I have to say thank-you to my teammates; my first lap in the car was a 3:36s. It just seems perfect."

The French trio was almost 3.5 seconds faster than Pescarolo Sport teammates Soheil Ayari, Eric Helary and Sebastien Loeb, who finished the day second.

Rally champion Loeb won a race of his own: the Le Mans rookie was busy winning the Rally of Turkey in the morning, but had to rush to Le Mans in a helicopter in order to run the minimum ten laps required of first-time runners.

"There were two stages of the Rally of Turkey left today," Loeb said. "I started the stages with a 1:15s lead, drove carefully and won by a minute. I had authorisation from the FIA to miss the press conference, and flew straight here. Now it's okay, we've done our ten laps.

"The conditions were difficult, as I was on slick tyres and there was some rain on the track. The car was well prepared - Pescarolo had the two best times of today. Obviously going from the Citroen Xsara it's very different, but the car was okay. I was driving how I felt; I did a lap in 3:45s, the track wasn't too wet and I was going quicker, but then it started to get wetter. After that I just concentrated on staying on the track and doing the ten laps."

Last year's winning car, the Audi R8, finished in fourth, seventh and eighth places. Nevertheless, Renault's F1 test driver Franck Montagny, whose car finished seventh, was content with the result.

"Today was not a bad day," the Frenchman said. "We're quite happy with today's result with our car, it was what we expected. I used to work with the same people back in 2002, and everyone has improved - the reactions of everyone are better.

"It was a perfect day; we had no problems with the car, we didn't touch any kerbs or go through any gravel traps."

In the LM2 class, the two Lola cars swapped fastest times throughout the day, with car number 25 taking the early lead, but car number 32 ending the day the fastest - barely two tenths of a second ahead.

In the GT1 class, Aston Martin was unsurprisingly the dominant force of the day, the two DBR9 cars never losing first and second positions in their class. In the end, the trio of Tomas Enge, Pedro Lamy and Peter Kox finished ahead of teammates David Brabham, Darren Turner and Stephane Sarrazin by a mere half a second.

In the GT2 class, the clear leader through the day was the Porsche Gt3-RSR #90, with Timo Bernhard setting a new unofficial GT2 track record in morning session, of four minutes and 4.915 seconds.

Pos Drivers Team Car # Class Time Gap Laps
1. Collard E
Boullion Jc
Comas E
Pescarolo Sport Pescarolo Judd 16  LM1 3:32.468 87
2. Loeb S*
Helary E
Ayari S
Pescarolo Sport Pescarolo Judd 17  LM1 3:35.893 + 3.425 96
3. Cochet J
Nakano S*
Jouanny B*
Courage Competition Courage Judd 13  LM1 3:37.674 + 5.206 61
4. Lehto Jj
Werner M
Champion Racing Audi R8 3  LM1 3:38.719 + 6.251 76
5. Michigami R
Ara S
Kaneishi K
Jim Gainer International Dome Mugen 5  LM1 3:38.875 + 6.407 37
6. Short M
Barbosa J
Ickx V
Rollcentre Racing Dallara Judd 18  LM1 3:38.976 + 6.508 82
7. Montagny F
Gounon Jm
Ortelli S
Audi Playstation Oreca Audi R8 4  LM1 3:39.060 + 6.592 87
8. Biela F
Pirro E
Champion Racing Audi R8 2  LM1 3:39.418 + 6.950 61
9. Minassian N
Campbell W
Wallace A
Creation Autosportif DBA Judd 7  LM1 3:39.568 + 7.100 67
10. Schwager D*
Frei A
Vann C
Courage Competition Courage Judd 12  LM1 3:39.633 + 7.165 70
11. Lammers J
Julian E*
Bosch J
Racing For Holland Dome Judd 10  LM1 3:41.507 + 9.039 89
12. Hignett S*
Stack J*
Kurosawa H
Team Jota - Zytek Zytek 04S 9  LM1 3:42.739 + 10.271 55
13. Fisken G
Halliday E*
Hancok S
Intersport Racing Lola AER 32  LM2 3:44.426 + 11.958 72
14. Erdos T
Newton M
Hughes W
RML Lola MG 25  LM2 3:44.614 + 12.146 67
15. Bennett P*
Mitchell I*
Mullen T*
Kruse Motorsport Courage Judd 30  LM2 3:45.844 + 13.376 60
16. Belmondo P
Andre D
Sutherland R
Paul Belmondo Racing Courage C65 For 37  LM2 3:46.522 + 14.054 51
17. Evans R
Berridge R
Owen P*
Chamberlain Synergy Motor Lola AER 39  LM2 3:47.586 + 15.118 64
18. Verdon-Roe B*
Krumm M
Primat H*
Rollcentre Racing Dallara Nissan 8  LM1 3:49.826 + 17.358 38
19. Enge T
Kox P
Lamy P
Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin DBR9 58  GT1 3:50.033 + 17.565 87
20. Brabham D
Sarrazin S
Turner D
Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin DBR9 59  GT1 3:50.539 + 18.071 87
21. Macaluso J*
James I*
Lally A*
Miracle Motorsports Courage AER 34  LM2 3:50.947 + 18.479 51
22. Peroni P-G*
Francioni F*
Savoldi M*
Lucchini Engineering Lucchini Judd 45  LM2 3:51.350 + 18.882 36
23. Fomenko N
Vasiliev A
Bouchut Ch
Cirtek Motorsport Ferrari 550Maranello 61  GT1 3:53.635 + 21.167 54
24. Gosselin Cy
Ojjeh K*
Sharpe A
Paul Belmondo Racing Courage C65 Ford 36  LM2 3:53.655 + 21.187 41
25. Zlobin S*
Migault F
Barazi J*
Intersport Racing Courage Judd 33  LM2 3:53.735 + 21.267 41
26. Gavin O
Beretta O
Magnussen J
Corvette Racing Corvette C6-R 64  GT1 3:54.183 + 21.715 90
27. Goueslard P
Dupard O
Vosse V
Larbre Competition Ferrari 550Maranello 50  GT1 3:55.340 + 22.872 67
28. Amorin N
Iannetta R*
Pillon Ch
Del Bello Noel Courage - CG 31  LM2 3:56.044 + 23.576 37
29. Fellows R
O'connel J
Papis M
Corvette Racing Corvette C6-R 63  GT1 3:56.174 + 23.706 92
30. Terada Y
Roussel P
Binnie W
Rachel Welter WR Peugeot 24  LM2 3:57.780 + 25.312 40
31. Gollin F*
Pescatori C.
Ramos M
BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari 550Maranello 51  GT1 3:58.199 + 25.731 83
32. Bartyan M*
Malucelli M*
Seiler T
BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari 550Maranello 52  GT1 3:58.428 + 25.960 63
33. Hillebrand V
Hahn F*
Leroch J-F*
Force Racing Courage C65 Judd 35  LM2 4:03.301 + 30.833 18
34. Rostan M
Haezebrouck P
Bruneau P*
Bruneau Pierre Pilbeam JPX 20  LM2 4:03.688 + 31.220 32
35. De Fournoux Jr
Daoudi S
 
JMB Racing Ferrari 575 GTC 69  GT1 4:04.435 + 31.967 17
36. Petersen M*
Long P
Bernhard T
White Lightning Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 90  GT2 4:04.915 + 32.447 65
37. Auberlen B
Liddell R
Maxwell Sc
Panoz Motor Sports Panoz Elan 77  GT2 4:05.059 + 32.591 53
38. Dumas R
Dumez S*
Narac R*
Raymon Narrac Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 76  GT2 4:05.367 + 32.899 55
39. Hindery L
Rockenfeller M
Lieb M
Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 71  GT2 4:06.464 + 33.996 66
40. Van Overbeek*
Pechnik L*
Neiman S*
Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 80  GT2 4:08.406 + 35.938 81
41. Bouvet Jb
Boulay S
Julien R*
Gerard Welter WR 23  LM2 4:08.550 + 36.082 26
42. Kinch N*
Kirkaldy A*
Reid A
Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari 360 Modena 93  GT2 4:10.180 + 37.712 49
43. Policand J
Campbell Ch*
Alphand L
Luc Alphand Aventures Porsche 911 GT3 RS 72  GT2 4:12.274 + 39.806 77
44. Coronel T
Crevels D*
Van Merkesteijn P
Spyker Squadron Spyker C8 Spyder GT 85  GT2 4:13.263 + 40.795 25
45. Sellers B*
Franchitti M*
Bourdais P
Panoz Motor Sports Panoz Elan 78  GT2 4:13.734 + 41.266 46
46. Pompidou X*
Blanchemain Jl
Yamagishi Y*
T2M Motorsport Porsche 996 GT3 RS 91  GT2 4:14.988 + 42.520 61
47. Nielsen L E
Thyrring T*
Ehret P*
Sebah Automotive Porsche 996 GT3 RSR 89  GT2 4:16.032 + 43.564 70
48. Macari J*
Ericsson S*
Wilson R
Cirtek Motorsport Ferrari 360 Modena 92  GT2 4:16.687 + 44.219 54
49. Collin P
Felbermayr H*
Shep D
Seikel Motorsport Porsche 996 GT3 RSR 83  GT2 4:20.543 + 48.075 79
50. Hartshorne J*
Stanton R
Johnson P*
RaceSport Peninsula TVR TVR Tuscan T400R 95  GT2 4:25.304 + 52.836 67

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