Paul Ricard, France
Pre-Qualifying
Sun shines on KRK Racing Mercedes in Pre-Qualifying
Blancpain Endurance Series – Pre-Qualifying Top 10
The
No.14 KRK Racing Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 PRO-AM entry of Belgians Rafael
Vanthoor and Koen Wauters and Dutchman Dennis Retera ended the day
fastest overall by producing a best lap of 1:58.760 in Pre-Qualifying at
a sun-drenched Paul Ricard this afternoon.
“It’s
a mixed feeling for me really,” Wauters said. “A mixture of happiness
and questions because we have P1 which means the car is good and Dennis
(Retera) is quick and we have very good possibilities of a good
Qualifying but my last session was terribly bad because I had a tyre
running flat which I didn’t know about.
“I
came out of the car with a bad feeling and the team said to me ‘hey,
you have P1’ which is pleasing of course. Both Rafael (Vanthoor) and I
have to find some more time from here. The team gave us a car which is
very good so I am pleased for them.
“It
is going to be very warm tomorrow so saving the tyres is going to be
important in the race. After 45 minutes the tyres start degrading a bit
so if we can look after the tyres and find some time here and there, we
could be good for the PRO-AM competition. We will go for the podium
absolutely.”
In
stark contrast to the wet and wild conditions of the first two rounds
in Monza and Silverstone, the south of France was bathed in temperatures
of 30C for the third instalment of the 2012 season.
The
top three spots in Pre-Qualifying were filled by PRO-AM cars. Second
fastest was the No.64 Black Bull Swiss Racing Ferrari 458 Italia of
Italian trio Tommaso Maino, Andrea Invernizzi and Mirko Venturi in
1:58.827.
Third
fastest was the No.51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia featuring Gaetano
Ardagna (VEN), Daniel Brown (GBR) and Giuseppe Ciro (ITA) with a time of
1:58.914.
The
best of the PRO cars was the fourth-placed Kessel Racing Ferrari 458
Italia No.71 of Italians Stefano Gattuso, Davide Rigon and Daniel
Zampieri with a best lap of 1:59.303.
The
championship leaders – the No.3 Marc VDS BMW Z4 of Markus Palttala
(FIN) and Belgian duo Bas Leinders and Maxime Martin, was down in 28th
place with a 2:00.592.
The
No.82 GCR Racing/Guy Clairay Dodge Viper of Gaël Lesoudier, Giles
Vannelet and Luc Paillard maintained their grip on matters in the
Gentleman Trophy battle by topping the class with a 2:03.258. The French
trio was also fastest in class this morning in the Free Practice
session.
Paillard
said: "It was a good day for us. No problem. We are going to look at
the top speed of the car because we are getting to the limiter quite
early. The important thing on this car is that we have three drivers are
of the same level and we can do the same lap times. It's a heavy car so
we are penalised in second and third gear corners. It's a good car on a
fast circuit.
"Our
first objective is to finish here because we didn't finish at
Silverstone and to win the class which we should be abel to do. Looking
at the lap times, maybe a top 30-35 finish is feasible if the weather
is nice."
Rob
Bell, who together with British co-driver Mike Wainwright finished
ninth in the Gulf Racing McLaren MP4-12C No.9, said: "Free Practice 1
was very good, Everything felt in order. The good thing is that driving
with Mike he gets to drive in the Bronze test in the morning. It's a
really good idea and it means that I can do a bit more in the second
session and I've got a good amount of time in the car and enables us to
do some quality set-up work. We were quickest initially and the P3 in
the end in the morning.
"I
thought we would be a little bit off here being so heavy. In the second
session we were P9 is where we thought we would be. The Porsche,
Ferrari and Mercedes are quick. It's horses for courses. We were strong
at Silverstone, if it had been dry we would have done a good job. Here
we have a long straight and we are disadvantaged a bit. But the
championship is set up to get everyone about the same pace which is the
ideal goal. In terms of how we've come together as a team this weekend,
it's all gone to plan."
Maxime
Soulet (BEL), who partnered Paul van Splunteren (NLD) and Dylan
Derdaele (BEL) to the quickest time in the morning Free Practice session
in the No.74 ProSpeed Competition Porsche, has high hopes for the
race. "We knew were going to be OK here compared to Monza and
Silverstone in the wet. We are much faster on the straights. If it stays
dry, which it seems like, we will definitely be up there."
Tomorrow’s action starts with Qualifying at 09:00 local time. The three-hour race starts at 14:15.
How to follow the Blancpain Endurance Series:
Online:
Live streaming of each race will also be shown on the official web site www.blancpainendurance-series.com
Watch the 2012 season preview on the Blancpain Endurance Series Youtube channel.
Television:
The
series will feature in live broadcast across 22 channels globally with a
number of other key broadcasters showing extended highlights in
territories such as Europe, Australia, North America and Latin America.
Bloomberg
Television will also broadcast highlights worldwide (Americas, Pan
Euro, Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific). That all adds up to a
global audience reach of over 350 million homes.
Motors TV will carry live coverage to viewers in over 20 countries across Europe.
Cameron Kelleher
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