Centenary Le Mans: Test Day Morning Notebook
Post-scrutineering parade
After the two days of scrutineering at the Place de la République came to a close yesterday, a handful of cars went on a parade through the streets of Le Mans, followed by the marshals who were also celebrated ahead of the event.
The cars that took part were:
– Prema Racing (Oreca 07 – Gibson / LMP2)
– Corvette Racing (Chevrolet Corvette C8.R / LMGTE Am)
– Kessel Racing (Ferrari 488 GTE Evo / LMGTE Am)
– Dempsey-Proton Racing (Porsche 911 RSR – 19 / LMGTE Am)
– GR Racing (Porsche 911 RSR – 19 / LMGTE Am)
– Walkenhorst Motorsport (Ferrari 488 GTE Evo / LMGTE Am)
– Hendrick Motorsport (Chevrolet Camaro ZL.1 / Innovative Car)
– Chenard & Walcker 1923
Extra drivers for Test Day
The Le Mans Test Day entry list includes a handful of additional drivers who will turn the required number of laps to ensure they can act as reserve drivers.
The list of additional drivers includes Matt Campbell (Porsche Penske), Kazuki Nakajima (Toyota Gazoo Racing), Stoffel Vandoorne (Peugeot Sport), Albert Costa (Inter Europol), Alexandre Cougnaud (GRAFF) and Juan Manuel Correa (Prema).
Vandoorne though, is not present today at Le Mans despite being listed, due to his commitments in Indonesia with Formula E.
The full Test Day entry list can be found HERE
Eastwood tasked with getting rookie teammates up to speed
2020 GTE Am Le Mans class winner Charlie Eastwood is the only driver in his #25 ORT by TF Aston Martin with Le Mans experience. The Irishman will therefore be spending the week assisting Ahmad Al Harthy and Michael Dinan to get up to speed with the circuit during testing today and spend the week ensuring they stay focused through the packed schedule.
“Ahmad is incredible, he’s been racing a long time but his mentality is perfect, whatever you tell him to do, he will do it in the next session. So I think he will do well this week,” Eastwood told DSC when asked about the expectations he has for his teammates.
“Michael on the other hand is very new to endurance racing, and motorsport in general, he’s only been racing for three years. There’s a massive learning curve for him. But Spa was encouraging.
“Ultimately though, Le Mans is a different beast for them both. They’ve done Road to Le Mans as a pair as part of their prep, so they’ve seen the track. But once you are directly involved it’s different, some people thrive in the buzz, and others lack confidence. It’s one of the most difficult circuits in the world, it’s really hard to nail a complete lap. For me, it took three years for everything to click.
“The team have done a fantastic job, we have a plan to keep us active and focused. It’s a 12-day event but you need the most energy on the 12th day when you’re most burnt out.
“On the driving side, there’s plenty of track time, but I will be minimising my time to help them. I will be doing very little. As it comes closer to the race, we’ll want to ensure we make the shootout, so I will have to kick on, but it’s about them really.”
How to follow Test Day
You can follow today’s testing action with live free audio from Radio Le Mans HERE, and with live timing HERE.
As usual, there is no live video feed of the sessions.
DSC, however, will post reports after each of the two three-hour sessions.
Winslow on pole for Ligier European Series race
James Winslow set pole for today’s Ligier European Series race at the Circuit de la Sarthe, which will take place between the two Test Day sessions.
The Ligier European Series event is the first of the support races to run alongside the 24 Hours of Le Mans Centenary and the first ever to take place on Test Day.
This morning before Test Session 1, free practice and qualifying sessions were held for the grid of Ligier JS P4 prototypes the JS2 R GTs.
Initially in Qualifying, Dimitri Enjalbert was the first to move out front. However, he was knocked off the provisional pole on the second set of laps by James Winslow. Bernardo Pinheiro (4:07.888) bettered that time briefly, before the Briton snatched back the lead on his final attempt (4:07.658), to finish ahead of George King, Dimitri Enjalbert and Steve Acchia.
In the JS2 R class, Maximus Mayer placed the RLR MSport car at the top of the standings.
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