Motorsport: Audi ahead at Le Mans test day
Good omen for Marcel Fässler: The Audi R18 was fastest at the official test day in preparation for the Le Mans 24 Hours on June 18/19. Porsche with Neel Jani and Toyota with Sébastien Buemi were also at the music. For the official test day, which is mandatory for all participants (60 cars, 180 drivers), [...]
For the official test day, which is mandatory for all participants (60 cars, 180 drivers), the 13.629 km Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans was closed on Sunday. This will not be the case again until next week for practice (Wednesday and Thursday, both evenings) and the 24-hour race started by Hollywood star Brad Pitt at 3 p.m. on June 18. Lucas di Grassi (BR) set the fastest time of the day in the Audi R18 with a time of 3:21.375 (243.6 km/h). His advantage was around nine tenths over the two Porsche 919 Hybrids of Mark Webber and Neel Jani. The second Audi of three-time Le Mans winners Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer (D) and Benoît Tréluyer (F) lost around two hours of time due to the change of a damper on the front axle and was the fourth-fastest car in the end.
A year ago, Neel Jani turned the absolute record lap in qualifying in 3:16.887, while in the race Lotterer in the Audi set the official lap record in 3:17.475. As the test day indicated, these are unlikely to be improved in 2016 as rule changes slightly slow down this year's LMP1 cars. Toyota lost around 1.8 and 2.4 seconds respectively to the best time with the TS050 Hybrids, whose new 2.4-L V6 turbo engines fell victim to defects at the last WRC round at Spa, but in total covered the greatest test distance (2415 km in total) of the three two-car works teams. The two Swiss Rebellion R-One cars lost less than six seconds per lap, so they are closer to the top than in the last few years.
Close to Swiss teams and drivers with AutoSprintCH
In the LMP2 class with 23 cars, the two Swiss teams Morand (18th) and Race Performance (22nd) still need to increase their speed if they are to aim for a place in the top ten on their own merits. In the GT class, the ten fastest cars from Chevrolet, Porsche, Ferrari, Ford and Aston Martin were within just 1.07 seconds of each other, which also suggests an exciting battle.
With further preliminary reports and the live ticker from Le Mans, we will keep you up to date over the next two weeks online and on Facebook at AutoSprintCH about the preparations and the performance of the teams and drivers from Switzerland.
www.24h-lemans.com
Photo: Audi, Toyota
