LMP2 set for close battle

The Porsche squads, Van Merksteijn Motorsport and Team Essex, have demonstrated high straightline speed with relatively low downforce set-ups.

By contrast, the Barazi Epsilon Zytek of Juan Barazi/Michael Vergers/Stuart Moseley, which qualified third in LMP2, has been running higher downforce levels to make the car easier to drive.

Ex-Formula One racer Jos Verstappen set the LMP2 pole time with a 3:32.301 effort late last night in the VMM RS Spyder, 1.1 seconds ahead of the Essex car, which did not improve on its Wednesday best. Vergers set the Zytek's fastest time, a 3:35.344.

Despite the gap, Vergers is confident the Zytek can take the fight to the Porsches.

"We're putting some pressure on the Porsches and if we can keep that pressure on them we hope to force them into some errors," he said.

"We're not going to be there straight from the start - I think they will take off - but it's a long, long race. You've got to keep going round consistently and I think with our downforce package it's going to be a lot easier.

"We've got a different philosophy. They are running very low downforce, so they're quick down the straights and their overall lap time is potentially lower than ours. We are running a little bit more downforce, a little bit more secure, which enables us to triple stint the tyres if we need to."

It is not yet clear whether Van Merksteijn (on Michelins) and Essex (on Dunlops) will be able to triple-stint their rubber.

Casper Elgaard, who shares the Essex Spyder with John Nielsen and Sacha Maasen, is also confident the squad can challenge Van Merksteijn, who have been the pace-setters in the Le Mans Series this season.

"In the last three LMS we have been one or two seconds off in qualifying and practice and then been a lot closer in the race," said Elgaard. "To be close here is very good.

"We haven't had this good a car before. The development Dunlop has done has helped. The car was built around the Michelin tyres, so for Porsche it's been a new experience to learn how the car works on different tyres.

"All in all Team Essex, Porsche, and Dunlop have done a great job together. We're all very satisfied we have a great race set-up and a car that is nice to drive for 24 hours."

The other car likely to match the leading LMP2 pace is the Speedy Racing Team Sebbah Lola-Judd of Andrea Belicchi, Xavier Pompidou and Steve Zacchia.

The car had a troubled Thursday, which included an off, but Belicchi's Wednesday best of 3:35.401 was still good enough for fourth.