Peugeot top testing with lap record
Sebastien Bourdais drew first blood for Peugeot in the battle of the diesels when the 28-year-old Frenchman set a new lap record around the re-profiled 13.629km circuit in the 908 shared with Pedro Lamy and Stephane Sarrazin
The triple Champ Car champion set a time of 3:26.707s - more than 1.5 seconds clear of Frank Biela's Audi, with Allan McNish close behind in the sister car.
There may have been time for one more try at fastest lap with the R10 TDIs, but yet another red flag brought an early end to proceedings.
The two manufacturers running diesel engines had a clear advantage over the rest of the field, filling five of the top six places.
Jean-Christophe Boullion was the interloper, putting in a heroic lap in the Pescarolo near the end of the day to set fourth fastest time, just 1.8 seconds off the front-running pace, but Jan Lammers was the second fastest gasoline-powered car, seventh overall and 7.3 seconds slower than Bourdais.
Both Audi and Peugeot introduced their new drivers to the circuit, Jacques Villeneuve getting his first taste of sportscar racing and setting a personal best time of 3:31.566s.
"Once the tack was learned it was very interesting to drive," said the 1997 Formula One World Champion. "There were a lot of fun corners, high speed.
"The most surprising and different thing I had to get used to was the traffic, and there were some cars that were quite slow compared to us.
"There were drivers with some very interesting lines, and it is something that we have to juggle with. It will be a key to the race and the result."
Some of the teams that were expected to set representative times never had the chance.
Stefan Johansson set eighth fastest time overall in the Arena Motorsport Zytek, but was suffering from a steering problem, which made the car "almost steer itself" during his fastest lap.
The car finished the day in the wall at the Porsche Curves after Hayanari Shimoda found himself with armfuls of understeer and he crashed heavily.
The wall in the daunting series of curves had a few visitors, the worst of which was Guillaume Moreau, who crashed the Courage Competition LC70 in the morning, causing the first of the red flags as the medics worked to remove the Frenchman, who later had no recollection of the accident at all.
Vitaly Petrov crashed the Noel del Bello Courage in the similar spot, though the team was able to repair the car in time for them to return to the action during the afternoon.
Jamie Campbell-Walter gave the new Creation Judd CA07 a solid debut when the British driver set ninth fastest time in the car that he shares with Felipe Ortiz and Shinji Nakano.
The two Barazi Epsilon Zyteks set precisely the same time to lead the LM P2 category, Michael Vergers setting his 3:39.016 lap ahead of Adrian Fernandez in the sister car.
Warren Hughes was third fastest in the ASM team Lola having lost much of the afternoon running due to a misfire.
The GT1 battle fell to Corvette, with Jan Magnussen breaking the magic 3:50 barrier in the C6R that he shares with Johnny O'Connell and Ron Fellows. The Dane set a time of 3:49.207, ahead of Tomas Enge's Aston Martin and reported absolutely no problems. The pace of the GT1 category
Patrick Long returned to Le Mans with a fastest lap in the GT2 class. The American set a time of 4:01.598 in the IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche, half a second faster than the Autorlando Porsche of Allan Simonsen.
Johannes van Overbeek was third fastest in the Flying Lizard Porsche.
Official testing day - full results:
Pos | Class | Drivers | Team | Car | Time | Gap |
1. | LMP1 | Lamy Sarrazin Bourdais |
Team Peugeot Total | Peugeot 908 | 3:26.707 | |
2. | LMP1 | Biela Pirro Werner |
Audi Sport North America | Audi R10 | 3:28.277 | + 1.570 |
3. | LMP1 | Capello Rockenfeller McNish |
Audi Sport North America | Audi R10 | 3:28.406 | + 1.699 |
4. | LMP1 | Collard Boullion Dumas |
Pescarolo Sport | Pescarolo Judd | 3:28.574 | + 1.867 |
5. | LMP1 | Gene Minassian Villeneuve |
Team Peugeot Total | Peugeot 908 | 3:30.314 | + 3.607 |
6. | LMP1 | Luhr Ekstrom Premat |
Audi Sport Team Joest | Audi R10 | 3:30.613 | + 3.906 |
7. | LMP1 | Lammers Hart Bleekemolen |
Racing For Holland | Dome Judd S101 | 3:34.035 | + 7.328 |
8. | LMP1 | Johansson Shimoda |
Arena Motorsports | Zytek 07S | 3:34.340 | + 7.633 |
9. | LMP1 | Campbell-Walter Ortiz Nakano |
Creation Autosportif Ltd | Creation Judd CA07 | 3:34.398 | + 7.691 |
10. | LMP1 | Primat Tinseau Treluyer |
Pescarolo Sport | Pescarolo Judd | 3:34.941 | + 8.234 |
11. | LMP1 | Deletraz Fassler Alexander |
Swiss Spirit | Lola Audi B07 - 10 | 3:35.672 | + 8.965 |
12. | LMP1 | Barbosa Hall Short |
Rollcentre Racing | Pescarolo Judd | 3:35.896 | + 9.189 |
13. | LMP1 | Yoong Mucke Charouz |
Charouz Racing | Lola Judd B07 - 17 | 3:36.267 | + 9.560 |
14. | LMP1 | Frei Cochet Besson |
Courage Competition | Courage AER LC70 | 3:36.373 | + 9.666 |
15. | LMP1 | Evans Berridge Owen |
Chamberlain Synergy | Lola AER B06 - 10 | 3:36.567 | + 9.860 |
16. | LMP2 | Barazi Vergers Ojjeh |
Barazi Epsilon | Zytek 07S/2 | 3:39.016 | + 12.309 |
17. | LMP2 | Fernandez Kurosawa Kerr |
Barazi Epsilon | Zytek 07S/2 | 3:39.016 | + 12.309 |
18. | LMP1 | Gounon Moreau |
Courage Competition | Courage AER LC70 | 3:40.520 | + 13.813 |
19. | LMP2 | Amaral De Castro Hughes |
Quifel ASM Team | Lola AER B05 - 40 | 3:40.613 | + 13.906 |
20. | LMP2 | Erdos Newton Wallace |
RML | Lola AER B05 - 40 | 3:41.025 | + 14.318 |
21. | LMP2 | Binnie Timpany Buncombe |
Binnie Motorsports | Lola Zytek B05 - 40 | 3:43.867 | + 17.160 |
22. | LMP2 | Greaves Moseley Liddell |
Bruichladdich Radical | Radical AER SR9 | 3:43.985 | + 17.278 |
23. | LMP2 | Burgess De Pourtales Siedler |
Kruse Motorsport | Pescarolo Judd | 3:47.145 | + 20.438 |
24. | LMGT1 | O'Connell Magnussen Fellows |
Corvette Racing | Corvette C6.R | 3:49.207 | + 22.500 |
25. | LMP2 | Rostan Pickering Macallister |
Pierre Bruneau | Pilbeam Judd MP93 | 3:49.418 | + 22.711 |
26. | LMGT1 | Enge Herbert Kox |
Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin DBR9 | 3:50.848 | + 24.141 |
27. | LMGT1 | Beretta Gavin Papis |
Corvette Racing | Corvette C6.R | 3:51.628 | + 24.921 |
28. | LMGT1 | Prost Ayari Lapierre |
Team Oreca | Saleen S7R | 3:51.721 | + 25.014 |
29. | LMGT1 | Bouchut Gollin Elgaard |
AMR Larbre Comp. | Aston Martin DBR9 | 3:51.822 | + 25.115 |
30. | LMP2 | Jouanny Nicolet Filhol |
Saulnier Racing | Courage AER LC75 | 3:52.023 | + 25.316 |
31. | LMGT1 | Babini Davies Malucelli |
AMR BMS | Aston Martin DBR9 | 3:52.028 | + 25.321 |
32. | LMGT1 | Brabham Rydell |
Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin DBR9 | 3:52.170 | + 25.463 |
33. | LMGT1 | Garcia Menten Fittipaldi |
Team Modena | Aston Martin DBR9 | 3:52.295 | + 25.588 |
34. | LMGT1 | Policand Goueslard |
Alphand Aventures | Corvette C6.R | 3:52.938 | + 26.231 |
35. | LMGT1 | Hallyday Gosselin Peter |
PSI Experience | Corvette C6-R | 3:53.527 | + 26.820 |
36. | LMP2 | Petrov Halliday Ianetta |
Noel Del Bello | Courage - AER LC75 | 3:53.955 | + 27.248 |
37. | LMGT1 | Groppi Prost Belloc |
Team Oreca | Saleen S7R | 3:54.176 | + 27.469 |
38. | LMGT1 | Blanchemain Vosse Andre |
Alphand Aventures | Corvette C5-R | 3:54.625 | + 27.918 |
39. | LMGT1 | Bornhauser Berville Fisken |
AMR Larbre Comp. | Aston Martin DBR9 | 3:58.935 | + 32.228 |
40. | LMGT1 | Apicella Atsushi |
JLOC Isao Noritake | Lamborghini Murcielago | 3:59.355 | + 32.648 |
41. | LMGT1 | Vasiliev Kostka |
Convers Menx Team | Ferrari 550 Maranello | 4:01.593 | + 34.886 |
42. | LMGT2 | Narac Lietz Long |
Imsa Performance | Porsche 911 GT3 RSR | 4:01.598 | + 34.891 |
43. | LMGT2 | Nielsen Simonsen |
Autorlando Sport | Porsche 911 GT3 RSR | 4:02.192 | + 35.485 |
44. | LMGT2 | Van Overbeek Bergmeister Neiman |
Flying Lizard Motorsport | Porsche 911 GT3 RSR | 4:02.668 | + 35.961 |
45. | LMGT2 | Salo Melo Mowlem |
Risi Competizione | Ferrari F 430 GT | 4:03.422 | + 36.715 |
46. | LMGT2 | Niarchos Kirkaldy Mullen |
Scuderia Ecosse | Ferrari F 430 GT | 4:04.635 | + 37.928 |
47. | LMGT2 | Kimber-Smith Watts Milner |
Team LNT | Panoz Esperante | 4:06.838 | + 40.131 |
48. | LMGT2 | Krohn Jonsson Braun |
Risi Competizione | Ferrari F 430 GT | 4:07.529 | + 40.822 |
49. | LMGT2 | Tomlinson Dean Bell |
Team LNT | Panoz Esperante | 4:08.961 | + 42.254 |
50. | LMGT2 | Janis Hezemans Kane |
Spyker Squadron | Spyker C8 Spyder | 4:09.236 | + 42.529 |
51. | LMGT2 | Collin Felbermayr Sr Felbermayr Jr |
Seikel Motorsport | Porsche 911 GT3 RSR | 4:09.347 | + 42.640 |
52. | LMGT2 | Belicchi Caffi Chiesa |
Spyker Squadron | Spyker C8 Spyder | 4:09.904 | + 43.197 |
53. | LMGT2 | Marsh Villarroel Rosenblad |
GPC Sport | Ferrari F 430 GT | 4:11.629 | + 44.922 |
54. | LMGT2 | Macari Aucott Newey |
AF Corse | Ferrari F 430 GT | 4:13.722 | + 47.015 |
55. | LMP2 | Longechal Yamagishi Terada |
T2M Motorsport | Dome Mader S101-5 | 4:24.078 | + 57.371 |
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