Test day: Kristensen on top for Bentley
Bentley Exp Speed 8 driver Tom Kristensen set the pace in Sunday's official test day for next month's Le Mans 24 Hours. The four-times Le Mans winner topped the times with a lap of 3m34.820s, a stunning 3.565 seconds faster than the Team Goh Audi R8 entry in the hands of fellow Dane Jan Magnussen
The second Bentley of Johnny Herbert, David Brabham and Mark Blundell was third fastest on a productive day for the team, ahead of the Audi UK R8 which brought out a red flag in the closing stages of the day when Frank Biela went off at the exit of the Porsche Curves.
John Nielsen topped the times in the LMP 675 category in the Den Bla Avis prototype which he shares with Hayanari Shimoda and surprise Le Mans returnee and former winner Johnny Dumfries, while in the GTS category Ferrari 550 Maranellos reigned supreme with the Veloqx Prodrive entry of Tomas Enge/Jamie Davies and Peter Kox shading the sister car of Andthony Davidson, Kelvin Burt and Darren Turner after the Chevrolet challenge was stymied by an engine change for the Corvette of Oliver Gavin, Kelly Collins and Andy Pilgrim.
In the GT category, the Racers' Group Porsche 911 GT3-RS of Kevin Buckler, Jorg Bergmeister and Timo Bernhard was on form, a second clear of the similar Alex Job Racing entry piloted by Lucas Luhr (not at the test), Sascha Maasen and Emmanuele Collard.
Kristensen/Capello/Smith (Bentley Speed 8), 3m34.820s
Ara/Werner/Magnussen (Team Goh Audi R8), 2m28.385s
Herbert/Brabham/Blundell (Bentley Speed 8), 3m38.769s
Frank Biela/Perry McCarthy/Mika Salo (Audi UK R8), 3m39.016s
Johansson/Lehto/Pirro (Champion Audi R8), 3m39.077s
Lammers/Wallace/Bosch (Racing For Holland Dome S101-Judd), 3m41.535s
Matthews/Goossens/Tinseau (Riley & Scott MkIII), 3m41.856s
Ortiz/Gabbiani/Gommendy (Racing For Holland Dome S101-Judd), 3m42.185s
Helary/Ayari/Minassian (Pescarolo Courage C60-Peugeot), 3m42.485s
Cochet/Gregoire/Derichebourg (Courage C60-Peugeot), 3m42.535s
Nielsen/Shimoda/Dunfries (RN Motorsports DB-Zytek), 3m47.708s
Maury-Laribiere/Fabre/Pillon (Noel del Bello Reynard), 3m57.760s
Field/Dayton/Sutherland (Intersport Lola EX257), 3m58.044s
Enge/Davies/Kox (Volqx Prodrive Ferrari 550 Maranello), 3m57.180s
Davidson/Burt/Turner (Veloqx Prodrive Ferrari 550 Maranello), 3m58.185s
Alphand/Dor/Policand (Alphand Ferrari 550 Maranello), 3m58.785s
Buckler/Bergmeister/Bernhard (Racers' Porsche 911 GT3), 4m08.636s
Luhr/Maassen/Collard (Alex Job Porsche 911 GT3), 4m11/316s
Hindery/Baron/Lieb (Orbit Porsche 911 GT3), 4m13.141s
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
IndyCar Long Beach: O’Ward leads Power in opening practice
Latvala: Neuville, Evans tied for WRC Croatia lead "something special"
WEC Imola: Ferrari remains on top in FP2 as Fuoco beats Porsche
WRC Croatia: Neuville, Evans tied for the lead after eight stages
Ranking Derek Warwick’s top 10 greatest races
Why Peugeot had no choice but to revamp its radical Le Mans Hypercar
How motorsport is embracing the opportunities of AI
The experiment WEC could revisit to magnify its boom period
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments