The 1000km of Silverstone this weekend are at the same time the finals of the 2010 season, the European Le Mans Series as well as the prelude to the first edition of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup - short ILMC - accordingly, there are the expectations and the number of participants.
Update after practice Friday:
The first day at Silverstone is over. In the morning it was still pretty wet, but the LMS training were in the afternoon and in accordance with reasonably dry, except during a short drizzle showers. In the first session and a brief safety car was pushed in practice, since one is working as usual in the LMS with two of these vehicles.
The times from the first practice is not really relevant, in the second it went through a few more road abgetrockneter seconds faster around the course. And then there was double-Peugeot front, where the # 1 (non-whiteness, whether or Minassian Davidson) just before the end it still took 1'43 .9, some 1.2 seconds faster than the leading up to that Oreca sister car. The Kristensen / McNish Audi missing on this car about 0.7 seconds, which is just under 1.9 on the Peugeot factory. That is a distance related, since Audi will conjure up a little tomorrow, must unless you have now bricked, but hardly what I think.
The best gasoline engines, the Belicchi / Boullion Rebellion Lola is missing, less than half a second on the second Audi. The restrictor-magnification from Portimao seems to have reduced the gap further, really competitive against the petrol diesel but still does not.
In the LMP2 Ginetta-fastest was the Quifel before Strakka and RML, for the German team comeback against KSM and the newly arrived British Budapest RLR team ran it rather slow speed has yet to be found here.
Big surprise in the GT2 the JMW-Aston Martin V8 Vantage confirmed the upward trend of the last race with a qualifying time, against which none of the top teams, neither AF Corse (# 95 on P 2) still Felbermay proton (# 77 on P3) could be effective. Remains to be seen whether this was just one lap on low fuel, or if Bell / Turner in Portimao have a real chance on the podium (where it reached the end of P4).
The Belgian Prospeed team was doing well, in the end it fell to 5th place, two places behind a stocked only the BMW M3. The CRS Ferrari in Budapest still potential winners, can be found on the rear-class seats.
Silverstone guide for beginners
I was already at Spa this year, and although both tracks are old, but now several times rebuilt traditional circuits, they could hardly differ more. If you have at Spa a few real-seat bleachers, grandstands, but natural slopes, is Silverstone, a former airport completely flat and has instead increased modern stands on almost every corner.
The lack of mountains or hills, of course, also make noticeable sound-standard, there is no echo but noticeably quieter, slightly more pleasant to bear, even if the "thunder" in the Ardennes valley had its charm.
The best places to look are in my opinion:
- Luffield / Woodcote: you see the cars coming down the Wellington (formerly National) straight, go through the fleet Brooks-country and the long drawn out Luffield curve and then accelerate back to the start / finish. It is worth it because you can spend some time.
- Copse: classic. The Tribune and the hills offer viewers a good look at the inside of the fence, but also from the outside of the curve is spectacular.
- Abbey Abbey, the new curve is great, especially with the infamous bump still existent. Incredibly fast (almost all of my photos taken there are totally useless ;-)), and sometimes there's even time NEN high-speed spin to "admire", but, thanks to the well-run asphalt dose usually does not end badly.
I was disappointed from the start / finish straight, because the stands were set back to make room for more Woodcote exit and then one has a very modest view of the pit lane. The Becketts Grandstand has the advantage that one Maggots / Becketts / Chapel overlook just how can the new arena, but here is the very large distance. The arena stands themselves were unfortunately still closed, as well as some others.
What has struck me: the Zytek engines Beechdean-Mansell and LNT produce the downshift (at least before Abbey, somewhere I have not taken it) much more than any other car backfiring. Now I would only have an engineer or mechanic once said, if what has to mean ;-)
At the end of the article some photos get updated very often. More information and photos in the next few days here or via Twitter ;-)
Preview
The preview is a bit more compact this time, since I will be on site and put themselves in the middle of the travel arrangements. But the more detail will turn out for the post-event reporting.
Silverstone is now the third consecutive year the venue for the LMS finale and also the right choice for that. Driving is on the arena opened in the spring version, so the quick-links Abbey followed by the equally dashing Farm Curve right before the arena itself offers a good overtaking opportunity. In the race of the F1 and the GT series is the new track layout has not beaten badly.
The entry list includes 46 vehicles, including six plant operations, which in the LMP1 and GT2 in three runs (Silverstone, Road Atlanta, Zhuhai) compete for the International Le Mans Cup.
Both Peugeot and Audi send two of its diesel prototypes into the race, with in addition to the Oreca Peugeot, who played the entire season, only a "real" work and that cart is used on with Anthony Davidson and Nicolas Minassian tax. For the Oreca 908 Lapierre / Sarrazin (this time without Oliver Panis) it goes but especially for the title: only two points of Vorprung is on the Signature Plus Aston Martin, a further three points behind, lurking in spite of two boisterous race of Kristensen / McNish Audi.
The pair will also compete throughout the season short ILMC together, while the occupation of the second vehicle varies. Rinaldo Capello at Silverstone and Le Mans winner Timo Bernhard is his turn. The aerodynamics of the R15plus was modified for the three ILMC race to get the three routes the necessary downforce, which was not used at the Circuit de la Sarthe.
Behind it has the speed to Aston Martin in his few appearances as a third force and the best gasoline established - but also in Britain struck at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the defect devil, but only towards the end of the race, the six hours should be on stand by.
But even outside of these three works provides the LMP1 class refreshing change: the two Rebellion Lola, as always there; the Mansell is once again complete, after Greg and Leon have proved in Budapest, that despite the lack of Speeds can pull something like such as Audi at Le Mans, namely reliability, the team LNT (Mowlem / Burgess / McMurry) another Ginetta-Zytek returned to the race, as well as in the previous year, when Nigel Mansell made his comeback in this car and then licked the blood.
And there is also still Drayson Racing to the home race on the pond, after the past few weeks went through ups and downs of the first pole at Mid-Ohio for the first victory at Road America, followed by Johnny Cocker (co-) caused severe crash while lapping, which led to the race at Mosport crash.
Both the battle between the top cars as well as between the petrol behind it should offer some live, even though the factory Aston Martin have an advantage here.
In the LMP2 fight two near Silverstone Headquartered teams for the title. It currently has the lead by 13 points the team of Ray Mallock Ltd.., Because the faster-Strakka HPD is not reached in two of four runs the target.
Kruse Schiller Motorsport is finally once again on a run here, alongside Jean de Pourtales and Jonathan Kennard will be this time but the Spaniard Lucas Ordoñez third man. He has his way into the real motor sport actually managed to video games, he is the winner of the Nissan / Playstation GT Academy in 2008 and has subsequently denied some races in GT4 European Cup. It will be interesting to see how it translates into a prototype.
In the GT1 only does the Larbre-Saleen, his character Le Mans winner in 2010, after not the sister car of the Austrian Atlas team after serious accident in Budapest could be rebuilt. The championship was decided one way or another already.
The GT2 has always like to offer a grand field, fighting mainly in the Ferrari and Porsche to the ILMC crown. In the competition for the latter but would also like BMW still intervene and sends an M3 GT2 to race, driven by Jorg Muller and Dirk Werner.
The LMS tracks the other hand, Richard Lietz and Marc Lieb at 15-point lead, however hard to take even more, who were both in their Felbermayr Proton Porsche simply too dominant and reliable. Three races are won in Portimao, it was enough to place 3rd Whether at Silverstone someone can do something about the two, remains to be seen.
The weather forecast for the weekend is quite variable. The current status is: Sun on Friday, rain on Saturday, only fog, then sun on Sunday, all at temperatures between 10 and 20 ° C.
Start is at 13 clock German time (12 clock time) and this time also € again sports detail are: start and final phase will be transferred in the main program, the middle section of the race up to one hour on Eurosport 2.
Related posts:
- Sports Car Preview: LMS in Portimao, GT Masters at Assen and Grand-Am in New Jersey
- 24 Hours of Le Mans: Analysis - Lead by Stamina
- ALMS: Preview of the 12 Hours of Sebring (including Twitter Index)
- 24-Hour Le Mans: What is the race?
- Preview: GT1 and 24h of Spa-Francorchamps / Analysis: ALMS at Lime Rock
hey stefan, first let me wish you lots of fun on location. =) Hopefully in good weather. but fog and rain must be already there when you're in england.
pity that the lemans series goes some way ... because as far as tv area. Only 30 minutes from the race partly to € sport ... no live stream for at least one of the two sides could offer. I mean, why they go there if the full program to come from a 6 hours 30 min ago renntag only on tv. no breaks something when it is streaming live on the net.
But is this a sign that the topic nascar (long run) is concerned. no tv sender wants to prevent something more to the knee. and then to prime time in Europe. unless he has nothing to show what he Sat / so tonight can.
About Silverstone can not complain, is 5.5 h live on ESP 1 +2 very well.
The rest of the season was obviously very poorly on TV.
LMS is live only when someone pays or sponsors. Normally, the Peugeot and / or Audi.