|
From YourSITE.com Motorsport News
When cars lined up in the pits for the beginning of Thursday’s first session, the #53 JLOC Lamborghini was nowhere to be found. The accident that had befallen the car on Wednesday was serious enough to consider the car a full writeoff. Fortunately for the Swiss Spirit Audi-Lola, Wednesday’s electrical gremlins had been sorted and the car returned for the second day of qualifying. Just nine minutes after the beginning of the session, another torrential downpour hit the track, beginning at Porsche Curves. By thirteen minutes into the session, all track activity had ceased as the flooding on the track proved just too much to continue. Eventually, a few cars ventured back out onto the track in the rain, led by one of the Oreca Saleens that headed out first to scout conditions. Seventeen minutes later, the first Audi-powered car to return to the track was the #85 Spyker. Minutes later, the rain was almost completely finished.
The track still wet, the fastest times of the evening came in well off the pace of Wednesday. Peugeot’s Jacques Villeneuve managed a 4:07.586, followed by a 4:07.215 by Dindo Capello in the #1 Audi. Then, just as the session came to an end, Audi Sport driver Marco Werner logged the fastest time of the session in the #1 R10 at 4:05.008. Thirteen minutes into the second session of the evening, there was more bad luck for the Audi-powered Swiss Spirit prototype. The car spun, causing damage that would require a flat bed truck in order to return to the pits. Minutes later, further heavy rains confirmed that the first night’s lap times would likely be the times that determined raceday starting positions. Despite the rain, Werner was on a screaming pace. The German would further whittle down his wet-track lap times to 4:04.500.
Perhaps trying to beat Werner’s evening pace, Marc Gene lost control of the #7 Peugeot, colliding with a tire barrier and ending the car’s contention in the evening’s session. Nevertheless, Gene’s teammate Sebastian Bourdais did manage to raise Werner’s bar with a 4:03.098 in the #7 Peugeot just minutes after his teammate abandoned the first car at Arnage. Towards the end of the late evening session, a respite from the rain meant a slowly drying track and slightly faster lap times. Allan McNish again displayed just how serious he was this year at Le Mans with a 4:01.257 in the #1 R10. And, that would be the fastest lap of the evening when a wreck by one of the Corvettes would cause a red flag that ran until session’s end. Wednesday’s positions would, in fact, stand when the green flag fell on Saturday.
© Copyright 2004 by YourSITE.com |
