Entry and History
The Spa 1000 Kilometres event became the most traditional race meeting on the Le Mans Series schedule. This year it is run for the seventh consecutive year as a part of the series. The only other race that was held regularly since 2004 was the Nürburgring 1000-km-Rennen but it disappeared from the schedule this year. Another regular LMS race, the Silverstone 1000 Kilometres, which is also a part of the new Le Mans Intercontinental Challenge this year, was replaced by Donington in 2006, thus leaving the Spa race as the only real fixture of the championship. In fact the new era of the Spa 1000 Kilometres started already in 2003 when it was run as a FIA Sportscar Championship race joined with the British GT Championship. That first modern edition of the race was won by a private Audi R8. Audi was at the top also in 2004, the first LMS race in Spa. Following two years belonged to low volume manufacturers (Zytek and Pescarolo) before a Peugeot era began.
This French team won Spa in the last three seasons. Even if the Peugeot team do not enter a full Le Mans Series programme since 2009, they have been still present in the last two seasons. This means Peugeot is here in Spa for the fourth consecutive race. They would be trying for fourth win in a row, though the main purpose of the Peugeot's participation here is a preparation for the Le Mans 24 Hours, which is running in June. Audi is here for the same reason. While they were running just one car in the first Le Mans Series race in Le Castellet, which they won quite easily, now they are present with a full force of three cars, similarly as Peugeot. This is only the second time that Audi is present with a full factory team for the Spa 1000 km race. Factory Audi started here only in 2008 when their old R10 were outpaced by Peugeots. One of the Audis still managed to finish second after one of the Peugeots was eliminated in a collision with another Audi. All other Peugeots wins here happened against no real opposition, if we did not count a factory Aston Martin effort last year as they really never challenged the leading Peugeot.
Back to this year: In the LMP1 we have a strong field of three factory Audis against three factory Peugeots supported by a private car entered by Oreca, which is the only LMS regular. Apart of that the LMP1 situation does not look well for the LMS championship because there are only three other LMP1 cars, which makes it only four LMS regulars. Since factories are not expected to race after Spa with an exception of the final Silverstone 1000 km race, as it is part of the new Intercontinental Le Mans Challenge, the next two LMS races may see pretty slim LMP1 field, unless Kolles Audis, Mansell's Ginetta or factory Oreca 01 return. None of those is here this weekend. In fact Mansells had been entered but then withdrew to prepare their ill-fated car for Le Mans 24 hours. Kolles has apparently financial issues and Oreca probably concentrate just on the Peugeot.
The class LMP2 is quite usual by the 2010 standards. Just eleven cars is well down compared to the seventeen last year but the field is pretty similar to that from the first round in Paul Ricard. Just the Welter Racing car was withdrawn the day before the race meeting. On the other side, a sole GT1 car from Paul Ricard, the Larbre Saleen, is joined here by another six GT1 cars. Most of them are World GT1 contenders using this race as an endurance test in preparation for their Le Mans 24 hours attack. Also an old Saleen, chassis 003, which was withdrawn from Paul Ricard, is present here. It is entered by Full Speed team but actually run by Czech K plus K Motorsport, which withdrew their own team last year after having not been handled well by the FIA and SRO in the GT Championship.
GT2 class is also a bit stronger than in the first race. Both the factory Schnitzer BMW and the Prospeed Competition team Porsche are back with two cars after a single car entry in France last month. Another new car joining the ranks here, though not a really competitive one, is the Porsche of James Watt Automotive.
Practice
Three one-hour practice sessions were on the schedule. The first two on Friday followed by another one on Saturday. Since the first session was actually held in rain, it did not reveal too much regarding the individual team, driver and car performance. Thus the private Oreca Peugeot topped the time sheets, Rebellion Lolas were fourth and sixth overall and the best LMP2 car, the Ginetta-Zytek of ASM team, was fifth, well ahead of all factory Audis and one of the factory Peugeots. GT1 cars were led by the Corvette of Luc Alphand, who is also here to prepare for Le Mans. But the best GT2, the Hankook Team Farnbacher Ferrari, was faster. Formula Le Mans number 49 in nice Gulf colours got in troubles very early in the session and would not appear again on Friday. But it would be back the next day.
The second Friday free session saw the track drying and dry. The Peugeots looked even visually to be quicker than the Audis, the results sheets confirmed this feelings. Top three position belonged to factory Peugeots. Fastest of them lapped under 2 minutes, which was much faster than last year. Just one Audi followed, the private Peugeot next and two remaining Audis at the end of diesel-powered pack. Signature Plus Lola Aston Martin was still struggling to find a good setup and with 2:08 was by far the slowest LMP1 cars headed even by four of the LMP2 cars. The RML Lola Coupe with a new HPD engine was at the top among them. A favourite of this class, the HPD-Acura, was still not at its peak, setting only fourth time in class. Late driver entry, Stefan Mücke in Aston Martin DBR9, was the one who set the pace of the GT1 class. He was followed by two Ford GTs, which were gradually showing their real potential. This is, we belive, the first official participation of the Ford make in the Le Mans Series since 2004 depsite many cars were fitted with Ford engines in the past. In the GT2 it was surprisingly the lone Aston Martin Vantage entered by JMW that set the pace in the slowest class. Formula Le Mans number 47 was crashed heavily in this session but it would be repaired in time for Saturday's efforts.
The third and final free session was actually run under best weather conditions so far. Peugeots were still in a clear advantage over the Audis. Official explanation was that while Peugeots are running high-downforce setup suitable for the Spa track, Audis are running in Le Mans configuration. Well, a bit odd, we will see what the real potential of the two marques in Le Mans is. So far it looks much better for Peugeot, even if one of the Audis could get into the top 3 in the final session. Signature Lola Aston Martin improved by 3 seconds but still was beaten by the HPD ARX-01, now really showing its full potential in LMP2. The RML Lola was still running very well ending the session second in its class ahead of surprisingly quick Ginetta-Zytek of team Bruichladdich. We can reveal it became the final good showing of the car today since it would crash in the first qualifying lap and secure the last grid spot, at least we believe so. In GT1 the two quick Ford GTs now dominated the class ahead of the lone Aston Martin and the lone Corvette. All other GT1 were really out of pace and were beaten by major part of the GT2 class. Here were had Andrew Kirkaldy with CRS Ferrari at the top. He was even third overall among all GT cars. Two Porsches and four other Ferraris followed. In this session it was for the first and final time that all fifty entered cars would set a measured lap time.
Qualifying
The qualifying session appeared to be great. Weather conditions were almost ideal. Audi team was the first out while Peugeot stayed in the pits. It was soon Audi 1-2-3 but with Peugeot still sitting in the pitlane it was nothing unexpected. Really surpring was the time set by Timo Bernhard in Audi number 9. While until now the Audi were runinng in the 2:00 to 2:02 range, he was now in the middle of 1:58s. For comparision, restricted Peugeots last year ran in low 2:01s, unrestricted Audis in 2008 ran in 1:58.7s, i.e. 0.2 seconds slower. The best time ever set in Spa by a sports car is 1:58.069, and of course it was a Peugeot - before the restrictions on power and aerodynamic deviced were applied by the ACO to slow the pace of modern cars. But when Bourdais sat into the Peugeot number 3 and managed to cover a clear lap, the clocks stopped at 1:57.884, the new prototype qualifying lap record, including the Group C era (though the configuration of the track was slightly different, especially the Bus Stop Chicane). Perhaps if ACO did not reduce the speeds during the last couple of years, we could have seen a sports car lapping around Spa at nearly Formula 1 pace. Audi with Timo Bernhard kept second for the remainder of the session so we should see Peugeot-Audi in the first row, which looks quite challenging. The next row should be Peugeot-Peugeot, but containing that one private entry. The next row will be all factory Audi. The fourth row will see Signature Plus Lola Aston Martin, which was quicker than the Rebellion cars for the first time. Stakka Racing HDP (ex-Acura) improved to excellent 2:03.1 and beat one Rebellion car by 0.008 seconds. Never before had we here such a quick LMP2 car, even if the Porsche Spyders were present for the last two seasons. The best of them, Jos Verstappen in unrestricted car in 2008 was almost three seconds slower. Even RML Lola Coupe, with the same HPD engine as the ex-Acura car, qualified better then any of the RS Spyders before. Would that be the future of LMP1, which should be very similar to the current LMP2 cars? We would see but these records are believed to stay unbeaten for a longer time.
In GT1 those were again Fords that dominated the class, the VDS car ahead of the factory Matech entry, followed by the Alphand Corvette and the Young Driver Aston Martin. All those were able to qualify ahead entire GT2 field. But the last three GT1 cars were again clearly out of pace. The lady driven Ford GT even ended up in the bariers in a 45 degree angle. This is actually a new car, chassis 005, after the first car, chassis 002, was destroyed in the first race of the new World GT1 Championship. It is good to have both Matech Fords back here in Belgium after the team was forced to field just one car last week in Tourist Trophy at Silverstone, the second round of the GT1 championship. The GT2 class was exceptionally close in the qualifying session. Top 14 cars were in less than one and half seconds! Along with those three mixed slower GT1 cars there is a pack of 17 cars running within less than 2 seconds. As for particular class results, it was Jaime Melo at the top in the AF Corse Ferrari, followed by Marc Lieb in Felbermayr Porsche, another three Ferraris (entered either by CRS or by AF), a second Felbermayr car, and finally, the best of the new BMWs. In the last race the BMW was not really on the pace with Ferrari and Porsche but after great run during the race, they were seriously attacked the podium and without later mechanical troubles, a big surprise could have happened. Now we know that we really need to count Schnitzer guys as contenders of the class, though they are still not quite at the level of the top Porsches and Ferraris. The lone GT2 Aston Martin was 10th but still only 1.1 seconds off the pole. Another make present, the Spyker, improved by 3.5 seconds compared to the last year but since the class became much more professional after the demise of planned FIA GT2 European Championship, the Dutch team could not do better than twelfth in class.
Track and weather conditions should be much different, worse, tomorrow, there is a forecast of drizzle and rain (currently increased to a 90% chance of rain), everything may be much different. But in any case we expect an exceptional race full of battle within the factory teams, not seen much often outside Le Mans. Let us just hope, the rain would not course something like it did last year in Petit Le Mans, the race we saw Audi going head-to-head with Peugeot for the last time.
Update: Sunday morning warm-up was dominated by Peugeots closely followed by Audis. HPD ARX-01 crashed but still managed to set the fastest lap in class. Lola Aston Martin did not take part in the warm-up session but the Ford GT that crashed yesterday was back on the track. Another car skipping the session was Formula Le Mans number 45. As for the weather, it may not be that dramatic as it was forecasted yesterday. It is sunny and cloudy since the morning, the track was dry and the latest weather forecast only expects 30% chance of rain showers.
We have also a lot of photos from the pits available, here are some of them. All picture here in reports and in the main Photo Gallery among are available in original size. In case of interesest, please contact us at usual email address.
