Written by:
Kevin Krefting
06/03/2007
Le Mans, France
Bourdais set a new track record aboard the debuting 908. (LAT Photo)
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American Le Mans Series drivers posted three of the four quickest class times Sunday in the annual Le Mans Test Day. The two four-hour sessions represented the only opportunity for teams and competitors to prepare themselves at the famed French venue for the 75th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
While Peugeot's new 908 topped the overall (and LMP1) charts in the hands of triple Champ Car champions Sebastien Bourdais, Adrian Fernandez (LMP2), Jan Magnussen (GT1) and Patrick Long (GT2) all were two seconds or more under last year's class pole times.
Audi's diesel-powered Audi R10 TDI held the second, third and sixth positions overall. Defending race winner Frank Biela set the day's second-best time at 3:28.277, nearly two full seconds better than teammate Rinaldo Capello's pole-winning time from 2006. Biela, who will reunite with Emanuele Pirro and Marco Werner, trailed only Peugeot's Sebastien Bourdais, a winner at Sebring last year for Panoz. The Le Mans native turned in a lap of 3:26.707.
Biela's Audi, however, turned in the most laps of any car entered Sunday with 92. Mike Rockenfeller, an American Le Mans Series regular in 2005-06, was third overall in the R10 TDI he shared with Capello and Allan McNish at 3:28.406. It was Rockenfeller's first day at Le Mans in a prototype.
"We had a very extensive program on our agenda, which we managed to work through almost completely," said Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ulrich. "In the end, we were lacking merely 10 minutes; otherwise we could have even completed the final tire test we'd been planning to do. I think we've worked out a good base for the race."
Fernandez, making his first appearance at Le Mans, turned in a P2 best 3:39.016 in a Zytek 07S/2 for Barazi Epsilon. The Mexican star is teaming with Haruki Kurosawa and Robbie Kerr as Fernandez prepares for what he hopes is the debut for Acura and Lowe's Fernandez Racing in 2008. Fernandez posted the exact time as the sister Zytek.
Fernandez is the first Mexican driver to enter Le Mans since Tomas Lopez in 1991. One of Fernandez's heroes, Pedro Rodriguez, was a winner at the 24 Hours in 1968.
"The experience of being at Le Mans has just been fantastic," said Fernandez. "I rode the track on a bicycle and then we drove it and, knowing the history of this place, it was just incredible, particularly the public roads where the straights are very long. It is amazing, especially when you are in the race car. It gives you a perspective of how it used to be, like in the Fangio years, because you are on these long straights - some are winding roads - and you are doing over 300 kph. It is very fast, and you are in top gear for a long, long time."
Corvette Racing's two Corvette C6.Rs were first and third in GT1. Magnussen led the way with a 3:49.207 in his attempt for a fourth straight class win after winning with Olivier Beretta and Oliver Gavin from 2004-06. This year, he is joining Ron Fellows and Johnny O'Connell, with whom he won at Houston in class.
