American LeMans
  • Peg It on GarageMonkey
LE MANS: Audi Goes Quickest, Crashes In Test Day
Allan McNish leads incident-filled official Le Mans Test Day, which included an accident by the rapid Scot himself...
John Dagys  |  Posted June 03, 2012   Le Mans, (FRA)
Allan McNish was quickest in Sunday's Le Mans Test day before crashing his Audi R18 e-tron quattro in the final two hours. His time held as the best of the day. (Photo: John Dagys)


Sunday's Le Mans Test Day saw its share of thrills and spills, in what turned out to be a bitter-sweet La Sarthe debut for Audi's R18 e-tron quattro.

While the No. 2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Allan McNish, Dindo Capello and Tom Kiristensen led a 1-2-3 for the German manufacturer, the very same car ended its day in the barriers at Tetre Rouge following an accident by two-time Le Mans winner McNish.

The rapid Scot lost control of his diesel-hybrid on entry into the high-speed corner, damaging the left-side of the LMP1 machine. With less 90 minutes remaining in the afternoon's four-hour session, the decision was made to abandon the car and not attempt to drive it back to the pits and risk further damage.

"I'm very angry with myself because I don't like making mistakes," McNish said. "But I'd have to say the car felt pretty good. And I told Dindo after I came back that the balance of the car felt quite nice. We seem to be going in the right direction. We've got a very good base to go into the race week."

Despite having set the quickest time of the day, a 3:25.927 lap by McNish, the No. 2 Audi didn't fare too well in the morning session either, as it lost 90 minutes due to a fuel leak, which saw Capello stop on track and get a tow back to the pits.

"That was quite a big problem for us because it [changed] a little bit of our schedule," Capello said. "Eight hours seems to be a long day for testing but when you lose one-and-a-half hours in the end, you realize that the time is never enough. What we have lost today for sure we'll have to try and recover it for the race weekend."

The story of the day came from the impressive performance by the debuting Toyotas, which wound up fourth and fifth quickest, but closely within reach of the factory Audi diesels.

The No. 7 Toyota TS030 Hybrid of Alex Wurz reeled off a best time of 3:27.204, only 1.3 seconds slower than McNish's best time.

“It is positive that we went through the program we planned and even did some more laps than expected," said Wurz, who teams with Nicolas Lapierre and Kaz Nakajima. "We have to always remember that we as a team are completely new in this game so we have plenty to learn; this is just the first step. Now we have our homework to do to get ready for the TS030 Hybrid's first race."

Toyota's sister car, which only turned its first wheel earlier this weekend during a shakedown on the Le Mans airport, was a solid fifth with Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi handling the majority of the driving duties. Third driver Stephane Sarrazin sat out the test after suffering a bicycle accident on Saturday.

Quickest of the LMP1 privateers was the No. 21 Strakka Racing HPD ARX-03a of Danny Watts, Jonny Kane and Nick Leventis, turning a 3:28.243 lap time in the morning's four-hour session.

The opening session also saw a nasty accident by the No. 15 OAK Racing Oak-Pescarolo Judd of Guillaume Moreau, who spun and made hard frontal contact with the barriers at the exit of the Karting Track corner.

Moreau sustained a fractured twelfth vertebrae from the shunt and underwent surgery this evening in a nearby hospital. His participation in the race has already already been ruled out due to the severity of the injuries.

"Guillaume has since undergone an emergency operation performed by Professor Olivier Lucas at the University Hospital of Angers’ Neurosurgery Department," a team statement reads. "It was crucial to quickly reduce pressure around the spinal cord following the fracture.

"Although the operation went well, it will be several months before his level of recovery can be fully assessed."

While there was misfortune for OAK's LMP1 entry, one of the team's sister cars topped the time charts in LMP2. Olivier Pla impressed at the wheel of the No. 35 Morgan-Nissan, setting pace-setting times in both the morning and afternoon.

Pla shared the wheel with Le Mans rookie David Heinemeier Hansson, as his two other co-drivers, Bas Leinders and Maxime Martin, were unable to make the test due to their commitments in the Blancpain Endurance Series at Silverstone today, a race which they won.

"I was able to drive two cars because Bas Leinders [and Maxime Martin] were in Silverstone," said Pla, regular pilot of OAK's No. 24 Morgan-Judd. "We worked a little bit on these car with David Heinemeier Hansson. He had to learn the circuit and set up the car a bit. I did the best time in the No. 35 but you really can't draw conclusions. We have to analyze the data and see where we stand."

Christophe Bouchut wound up second quickest in the No. 33 Level 5 Motorsports HPD ARX-03b, thanks to his 3:41.598 lap, which was 0.307 seconds off Pla's pace-setting time. The defending ALMS P2 champs ran both of its HPDs today, with team owner Scott Tucker concentrating his driving duties in the No. 95 car.

Third in LMP2 went to Spa winners Team Jota in their Nissan-powered Zytek Z11SN, with the No. 24 OAK Morgan-Judd fourth quickest in a time also set by Pla.

There was misfortune for Starworks Motorsport late in the day, as Enzo Potolicchio suffered an accident with less than six minutes remaining on the clock. The Venezuelan, who along with co-driver Ryan Dalziel came straight from Saturday's GRAND-AM race in Detroit, lost control of the HPD ARX-03b under braking and spun backwards into the barriers.

While Potolicchio climbed from the car uninjured, the Sebring class-winning car sustained heavy rear-end damage but will be rebuilt in time for race week.

PHOTOS: Le Mans Test Day Gallery

Page 1 of 2
Prev
12
Next
john_dagys's avatar

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Dagys

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR
Advertising | Jobs | Feedback | FAQ | Terms of Use | NEW Privacy Policy | Ad Choices | Site Map
Fox Sports | FUEL TV | FX Network | National Geographic | IGN | AskMen
The Motor Sports Authority, SPEED and associated logos are registered trademarks of Speed Channel Inc.
All Rights Reserved © Speed Channel, Inc. 2013

All external links will open in a new browser window. SPEED.com does not endorse external sites.