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Donington Park ELMS

14/04/2001

Qualifying

Report

Oddly, none of the top four GTs went out during the first half of the GT / GTS half hour. One of the BMWs didn’t go out at all. “It’s having a 10 000 mile service,” explained JJ. Take that to mean that the water temperature had gone off the clock and the V8 wasn’t in the car.

The Saleens were out at the start, Oliver Gavin setting a fine sequence of 1:28s to leave his best at 1:28 flat. The other Saleen was three seconds off this outstanding GTS time. Is it true that Corvette are a little niggled that Saleen are doing a better job with the tyres that they developed?

Robin Liddell was fastest GT in the #60 PK / Ricardo Porsche for a chunk of the session, but Johnny Mowlem set a low 1:36 to take fastest time – until the top three ventured out. Ekblom was first and he took the pole with a 1:33.724. Christian Menzel and Lucas Luhr gave it everything in the Job cars, but they were three and six tenths behind the latest flying Swede. So Mowlem and Liddell were fourth and fifth, but the early laps of the race are going to be enlivened by Lehto or Jorg Muller starting from the back.

The rest were in the 37s, 38s and 39s – with the Sebah (ex G-Force) 911 GT3R adrift in the 1:41 area.

The Prototype Qualifying session followed a vaguely similar pattern – in that the silver Audis didn’t go out for 15 minutes. Initially, Martin O’Connell was fastest! – but not for long. He set an excellent 1:29.726 in the Pilbeam, then went even quicker with a 27.971. But by then he was.....only fifth. Because some of the Prototypes were in trouble. Brabham did a slow lap and came back in, then repeated the exercise. The Lupberger Ascari broke a driveshaft, the #4 A410 didn’t go out because its oil problems were more serious than first thought. No spare engine? Luperberger made it out 10 minutes later for another go.

Time for Kristensen to set the (Scandinavian) pace in this session too. His target was a Johansson 1:22.383 and a fine – thrilling – effort from Beretta in the Chrysler. 1:22.721 was almost as fast as his morning time, and he was trying very hard. All this from a car set up in low downforce trim. The Audis are definitely in short track format. Kristensen took a lap or two to warm his tyres with some moving around on the track. Then he took pole, with no apparent effort. A 1:21.432. Classy stuff, nearly a second quicker than Johansson.

Frank Biela was qualifying the second Audi. Allegedly, he got lost making his way from Birmingham Airport yesterday. He punched in Donnington instead of Donington into his Audi’s on board computer and ended up in Lincolnshire. Could he navigate round Donington better than to Donington? Yes, with a 1:21.328, but Kristensen went quicker with a 1:21.122 a few seconds later. The sun appeared as if to celebrate these mighty times, and Stefan Johansson was off for another go. He took seven tenths off his best, and kept on going. But if he looked quicker (read twitchier) he wasn’t. So an Audi 1-2-3.

Beretta stayed fourth, the Courage was next, then Brabham finally had a chance to stretch the Panoz #50. He got into the 1:24s for the second time this weekend, but by then Lupberger was into a low 1:24 for sixth in the repaired Ascari. Doom to elation for them, thanks to that very quick driveshaft change.

The three Panoz were left in seventh, eighth and ninth. "It was a bit frustrating out there this afternoon," said David Brabham. "We made a few changes to the paddle shift system before the session but had problems with it. There were not enough minutes left in the session to do a time which we think the car is capable of."

"We're still struggling with the brakes," said Gualter Salles in #51. The brakes seemed to work well for half a lap, then the rears started to lock up.

O’Connell’s fine effort was quicker than the Reynard could manage. The Irishman was clearly relishing the extra power from the Nissan, compared to last week.

The Gulf car was in big trouble at the end of the session though. Johansson seemed to understeer off at the exit of Redgate, had a long trip across the grass and hit the tyres hard with the front left corner. Fixable? Apparently, yes.

Olivier Beretta was "really disappointed" not to get among the Audis. "The new Mopar is performing better than we could have hoped and fourth position is fantastic for the team." Yannick Dalmas seemed content to let his younger partner savour the Qualifying plaudits. Dalmas will play his part at Le Mans (and tomorrow).