24h Le Mans
Like last year, Herv
Free Practice 1 - The first of two one-hour free practice sessions saw domination by OAK Racing's LM P2 Morgan ahead of Eurasia Motorsport's LM P2 Oreca by less than a second. A nice quasi-surprise, the third time clocked by Morris Chen in Team AAI's BMW Z4, at 5 seconds but ahead of the two CN prototypes, at a disadvantage here due to the Shanghai circuit's long straights. In this class, Craft Bamboo Racing's Ligier upset Team Avelon Formula's Wolf by less than a second, in which slid Team AAI's Mercedes and Clearwater Racing's white Ferrari, the second of Team AAI's BMW Z4s bringing up the rear. The mild weather assured a perfect track and the practice session of the program's eight races went off without delay as night falls quickly in Shanghai. The finish on Saturday at 6:00 p.m. will happen "between dog and wolf" to borrow the intranslatable expression of the country of dragons.
Free Practice 2 - The second free practice session ended in partial darkness, the cloudy sky and sunset at 5:32 p.m. leaving little light at dusk. Daniel Poissenot, an aviation expert, calmed his crew by recalling that night is not official until a half hour after sunset at 6:02 p.m, phew! With the checkered flag at 6:00 p.m., the few cars still on the track headed for the pits. Few changes during this second hour of free practice other than the best time for Eurasia Motorsport's LM P2 Oreca which was still short of reaching by more than a second the OAK Racing Morgan's best time from the first hour. The best GT was Team AAI's Mercedes ahead of Clearwater Racing's Ferrari 458, then the two AAI BMWs and finally the only CN prototype in action, the Ligier of Craft Bamboo Racing which struggled with its yellow headlights as daylight went away. The other CN stricken with technical issues did not manage to take the track (electrical problems, blocked starter…) despite extreme remedies on the part of mechanics. Tomorrow, qualifying at midday then 24 hours of rest before the three-hour race on Saturday afternoon. In our Race Direction area, we only come across those who seek to visit with us, like Sébastien Loeb, who on Saturday and Sunday will defend Citroën in this round of the WTCC World Championship (touring cars). The Chinese, very ardent defenders of their touring championship (CTCC), consider the event to be major and the public give them a certain reason to do so.
Hervé Guyomard / ACO - Translation by Nikki Ehrhardt / ACO
