FIA WEC 2017 - Monza Prologue Diary: Saturday evening

The weather we were promised finally arrived just in time to turn the evening session into a puddle jumping contest. Do you have your wellies on? Here come the droppings / jottings / waffle from the third (and rather soggy) session of the WEC Prologue day one.

As the green flag was shown, the 'wet track' warning came up on the monitors. The much anticipated precipitation had finally arrived. At first only the works LMP1 H cars were brave enough to risk the damp conditions while the rest played a waiting game.

At 19:09 the first of the LMP2 cars braved the conditions, Mathias Beche in the #13 Vaillante Rebellion. At this point we could see rain falling and there were damp spots on pit straight.  At 19:15 the only remaining car circulating was the Toyota #7 with Mike Conway at the wheel. Thunder was heard in the pit lane at 19:17 when Conway came into the pit lane.

At 19:22 Dumas left the pits with 'full wet' rubber on the #36 Signatech Alpine. By that time the sky had turned battleship grey and the rain looked like it would be more than just a passing shower. Dumas didn't complete a flying lap. it was then the turn of Hartley in the Porsche 919 Hybrid #2 and Pla in Ford GT #66 to reconnoitre the dampness. Pla did a flying lap about 23 seconds slower than dry laps from earlier sessions. Hartley dived straight back into the pits without setting a time. Davidson then took the #8 Toyota out for a flying lap about 25 seconds slower than a dry lap. At that point we heard that standing water had been reported at Lesmo, although the rain looked like it had eased-up a bit. 

At about 40 minutes into the session, a few more intrepid souls braved the conditions and Davidson's times in the #8 Toyota seemed to be improving marginally which suggested the track may be drying a little.

The general reluctance to play in the puddles at night continued but at 19:46 it seemed the rain had finally stopped. Barker in the Gulf Racing Porsche #86 was the first of the GTE Am grid to go out and set a time. By that time the LMP1 cars were setting times about 18 seconds slower than dry so the indication was that things were improving but we could still see 'rooster tails' on the cars passing us on the pit straight. 

After the first hour of this soggy session only 11 cars had set lap times including all of the LMP1 cars except of course the ByKolles CLM which was still awaiting it's missing part. It looked like the times set on the first couple of laps of the session on a relatively dry circuit would stand until the end, and no improvements were expected. 

At 20:06, Negrao in the #35 Alpine became the 12th competitor to set a lap time. By 20:20 the LMP1 times were about 15 seconds of the dry pace suggesting the track was (slowly) drying out.

The ByKolles mechanics finally located the missing jigsaw piece of the CLM #4 and it made its first appearance on the circuit at 20:27. While the #4 was on its out-lap, Lotterer in the #1 Porsche took the shortcut at Rettifilio (T1 T2) but no harm done. Webb meanwhile brought the CLM straight back into the pit lane without setting a time. Webb however took the ByKolles #4 back out again at 20:40 and finally posted a somewhat modest first flying lap time of 2:17.515.

With only 10 minutes left on the clock, the rain started coming down again with some enthusiasm, which rather put the tin lid on any chance of 'drying'. At 20:54 only Kobayashi in Toyota #7 and Webb in the #4 ByKolles were on the circuit, and when the Toyota came in at 20:56 the CLM had the honour of being the only car on track. Debris was reported on pit straight and our (unconfirmed) suspicion was that it had come off the ByKolles car which came back in the pits leaving an empty track for the last 2 minutes until the chequered flag.

The times for session 3 are a bit inconsequential but for the sake of completeness, Jani in Porsche #1 set the fastest time overall in the opening laps on a dryish circuit, followed by the sister Porsche #2 second and the Toyotas #8 and #7. The Vaillante Rebellion #13 was quickest in LMP2 followed by #36 and #35 Signatech Alpines. The factory Porsche #92 and #91 topped GTE Pro followed by the #66 Ford GT. In GTE Am only the #86 Gulf Racing Porsche set a flying lap time.

Full timing and classification is available HERE

See you tomorrow for Prologue Day 2.

Dave DAVIES

FIA WEC 2017: GTE Pro driver line-ups confirmed for Le Mans

At the first day of the FIA WEC prologue in Monza, Porsche announced its GT driver pairings for the Le Mans 24 Hours in June. With this announcement, all driver pairings for the GTE Pro class in Le Mans are now confirmed, except for Corvette.

Patrick Pilet will join Richard Lietz and Frédéric Makowiecki in the #91 Porsche 911 RSR. The third driver for the #92 car will be Dirk Werner, who will be joining Michael Christensen and Kévin Estre. 

“Choosing the drivers for the most important race of the year was actually easy,” said Head of Porsche Motorsport Dr Frank-Steffen Walliser. “Our driver squad is so strong we basically couldn’t make a mistake. Patrick Pilet and Dirk Werner are the perfect complement to our regular team members. It is definitely an advantage that they all know each other very well from the races in the USA. We’re in an excellent position for Le Mans with these drivers.”

Earlier this week, on Thursday, Aston Martin Racing also confirmed its driver line-ups for the round the clock race at Le Mans. 

Brazilian driver Daniel Serra will join Aston Martin Racing for Le Mans this year, making his debut in the FIA WEC. Serra has already completed countless laps in the team’s V8 Vantage GTE throughout an intensive testing and development programme with tyre supplier Dunlop. He will race alongside Darren Turner and Jonny Adam in the #97 Vantage V8. Joining the "Dane Train" Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen in the #95 is New Zealander Richie Stanaway who returns to the FIA WEC.  In preparation for Le Mans, Serra and Stanaway will join the team in the 6 hours of Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps. 

Aston Martin Racing Team Principal Paul Howarth is very excited to have both drivers on board this season. Both of them bring with them the speed and consistency that we look for in any driver here at Aston Martin Racing. While Richie has of course raced with us for many seasons, Daniel is also well known within our operation. We are a team with big ambitions following our championship successes last year and while the competition will undoubtedly be tough, it is our objective to be on the top step of the podium at Le Mans in June”.

AF Corse has secured Lucas di Grassi as their third driver in the #51 Ferrari 488 GTE. The Brazilian driver was confirmed yesterday ahead of the FIA WEC prologue. Di Grassi is still active as an Audi factory driver in the Formula E championship, but has always expressed his desire to return to Le Mans after the withdrawal of Audi out of the FIA WEC. He will join Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado in the #51 Ferrari. 

Spanish driver Miguel Molina  has been appointed as the third driver for the #71 Ferrari 488 GTE at Le Mans. He will join Davide Rigon and Sam Bird. Molina has been active in the DTM in the past 7 years and now races with the Spirit of Race team in the GTE Am class, as in the Blancpain Endurance Series with SMP Racing. Molina and Di Grassi both tested the Ferrari at Vallelunga last month together with Alessandro Pier Guidi and Nyck De Vries to replace Gianmaria Bruni who left Ferrari for Porsche. Pier Guidi got the seat as a factory driver back then.

Ford Chip Ganassi Racing already confirmed its driver line-ups in February. There's one new name into the team, Brazilian Luis Felipe "Pipo" Derani who will join Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell in the #67 Ford GT. Derani impressed last year with Extreme Speeds Motorsports in the LMP2 class, winning Daytona and Sebring back to back and with some impressive driving in the FIA WEC. 

Last years GTE-Pro winners at Le Mans, Joey Hand, Dirk Müller and Sébastien Bourdais will defend their title in the #68. The driver trio already won the 24 hours of Daytona this year, and could be the team to beat again at La Sarthe. In the #66 Ford GT, Stefan Mücke and Olivier Pla will be joined again by American Billy Johnson for the races at Silverstone, Spa and Le Mans. Third place finishers at last years Le Mans, Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook and Scott Dixon will also return with and unchanged line-up in the #69 Ford. 

Kristof Vermeulen. 

FIA WEC 2017 - Monza Prologue Diary: Saturday Afternoon

Here is the second batch of musings from Monza. Tony says I should give a nod to Jox Jottings by calling it Dave's Droppings but that sounds a bit unsanitary.

The showers we were promised had not turned up when the green flag came out for session two. There was less of a queue at pit exit at the start of the session than earlier and the timing screen took a while to fill up with times. It was not all quiet though. Conway took advantage of the lack of traffic to set two quick times (1.31.570 and 1.31.332) in the opening minutes in Toyota #7, eclipsing the fastest time of the morning set by Jani in the Porsche #1.

Gonzalez beached the #24 Manor at Rettifilio (T1) requiring extraction and a full course yellow (FCY) at 14:24. By 14:30 the car had been craned away and track was green again. The Toyota #7 had remained on top at the half hour point, followed by sister car #8 Toyota and #1 Porsche. In LMP2 the TDS Racing #28 was quickest followed by #36 Alpine and #13 Vaillante Rebellion. In GTE Pro it was #92 Porsche making an appearance at the top of the table followed by the #91 Porsche and #66 Ford GT. In Am the Dempsey Proton Racing #77 was quickest at that point, followed by #61 Clearwater Racing Ferrari and #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari.

By 14:50 it was just beginning to cloud over again with patchy sunshine, however none of the anticipated showers had turned up. All cars had set a time in session 2 apart from the #4 ByKolles CLM which was still resting in pieces in the ByKolles box. Just before the one hour mark, Lotterer in the #1 Porsche split the two Toyotas with a time of 1:32.211. The time set by Conway (1:31.332) in Toyota #7 still stood fastest overall with the #8 Toyota third. In LMP2 the #26 G-Drive had taken top spot with #36 Alpine second and #13 Vaillante Rebellion. No change in GTE Pro (#92,#91,#66) and in GTE Am the #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari had been propelled from third to quickest in class, ahead of the #98 Aston Martin and #86 Gulf Racing Porsche.

Just after the one hour point, Matteo Cairoli put in a 1:50.180 to take the Dempsey Proton Racing #77 Porsche into first position in the GTE Am times. Tony took a wander down to the ByKolles box again at about 15:15 to see how they were doing. The car was still in bits and there didn't seem much to suggest they were working on it with a sense of urgency.

At 15:29 the #7 Toyota made took the short cut at Rettifilio (T1-T2) but continued with no harm evident. No change in position at the top of the screen (#7,#1,#8) at that stage and #26 G-Drive remained at the head of LMP2 from #37 Jackie Chan DC racing and #28 TDS Racing. #92 Porsche retained the top of the GTE Pro times from #66 Ford and #91 Porsche. The time set by Matteo Cairoli kept the #77 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche at the top of GTE Am followed by #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari and #98 Aston Martin.

At 15:35 Kevin Estre parked the #92 Porsche in the gravel at Ascari which brought on a full course yellow (FCY) followed by a red flag a few minutes later. The car was extracted and made it back to pit lane under its own power. We were back to green flag condition at 15:48. There appeared to be a prototype stopped on the track just downstream of Ascari as the Porsche was extracted but we can't be sure who it was, as they got going again relatively quickly.

With one hour remaining the top three overall was still Porsche #1 as the meat in a Toyota sandwich, #7 - #1 - #8 with the #4 ByKolles still yet to set a time. The #26 G-Drive was demoted to second fastest in LMP2 by the #36 Alpine with the Jackie Chan DC Racing #37 third. No change in GTE Pro at that point (#92,#66,#91) and #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche remained in charge of GTE Am with #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari second and #61 Clearwater Racing Ferrari third.

With 30 minutes remaining in the session, we were still yet to see any rain, and it looked like we could probably get away with a dry day of testing. The top three order in LMP1, LMP2 , GTE Pro and Am had not changed in the previous half hour. Despite retaining the second fastest time, the #26 G-Drive had feverish work being done in the engine bay at 16:35 although Tony pointed out that the work was being done in the pit lane rather than the box so was likely to fall into the category of 'minor adjustments'. They continued to tinker and set the car off for a lap then before bringing it in again for more tweaking.

At 16:44 the #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche in the hands of Marvin Dienst, shredded a tyre and was reported as going slowly at Ascari. The car limped back to the pit lane and was pushed into its box. At 16:58 Petrov in the #24 CEFC Manor TRS Racing Oreca had a spin at the exit of Rettifilio (T2) and continued with no damage evident.

Just as he took the chequered flag at 17:00, Nakajima improved the #8 Toyota to 2nd fastest with a lap of 1:32.062, so at the end of the session it was #7 Toyota from #8 Toyota, Porsche #2 and Porsche #1. In LMP2, the #36 Alpine held the fastest time. There was also a late improvement for #24 CEFC Manor TDS car, putting it second in class ahead of the #26 G-Drive. In GTE Pro, there were no last minute fireworks and the order remained the same with the #92 Porsche quickest ahead of the #66 Ford and #91 Porsche. In GTE Am it was Barker who put in a time of 1:50.035 in the #86 Gulf Racing Porsche to propel it to quickest in class #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche and #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari. Despite the gathering grey clouds towards the end, the session was dry.

One of the ByKolles mechanics (possibly Phil) was seen emerging briefly, groundhog style, from his pit garage. We don't know if he saw his shadow or not so we are uncertain if the prognostication is for the #4 to take part in the evening session or not.

Full timing results are HERE

Dave DAVIES