European Le Mans Series – Oreca Fastest at Paul Ricard

Bright morning sunshine gave way to rain in the afternoon for the final day of the European Le Mans Series Official Test, the final opportunity to get ready for the season opener at Silverstone on Saturday 11 April.

The two days saw a mixture of weather than gave the type of conditions they will face this year during the 4-Hour races in the UK, Italy, Austria, France and Portugal.

Unsurprisingly the fastest times were set in the morning session on a dry track with the no46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca 05-Nissan of Tristen Gommendy setting the quickest lap with a 1m48.432, which was also the second fastest lap over the two days. Gommendy’s lap was also 0.897s quicker than the closest car, the no37 SMP Racing Oreca of Anton Ladygin.

In LMGTE the BMW Team Marc VDS BMW Z4 set best time in both the morning and afternoon sessions, with double FIA World Touring Car Champion Andy Priaulx going quickest ahead of the no51 AF Corse Ferrari 458.

In GTC it was the no57 SMP Racing Ferrari 458 of Luca Persiani which went quickest with the fastest time of the two days in a lap of 1m57.747 and 0.2s faster than the no62 AF Corse Ferrari and no59 TDS Racing BMW.

The LMP3 class Team LNT Ginetta-Nissan completed another 65 laps as the British team worked hard to develop the brand new car that will make its race debut on home soil in just over two weeks’ time.

After lunch with the clouds rolling in across the Circuit Paul Ricard the teams went out to get some dry running but it wasn’t long before the rain came and the lap times dropped off as the cars switched to wet tyres. The no25 Algarve Pro Racing Ligier was the quickest car but three seconds slower than the TDS Racing Oreca in the morning session due to the track conditions.

Overall the fastest car of the two days was the no48 Murphy Prototypes Oreca 03R-Nissan, with Nathanael Berthon setting a 1m48.155 lap during the first session on day one. The fastest LMGTE contender was the no56 AT Racing Ferrari 458 Italia of Alessandro Perguidi who set a 1m56.980 during the afternoon session.
Next stop is the UK with Free Practice for the 4 Hours of Silverstone taking place on Friday 10 April and qualifying and the race on Saturday 11 April.