© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat
We’ve got some good news and we’ve got some bad news to report from the Monza test that took place today at the Monza circuit.
Good news was of course the arrival of Peter Kox at the Aston Martin Racing team, while Spyker Squadron reported a trouble free session which gave the team a lot of confidence for Le Mans. Jeroen Bleekemolen and Jarek Janis were driving the Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R and both drivers were on the pace. All in all the test was usefull for finding the best possible setup for the 24 Hour race and the team was happy with the progress made and the weather conditions at the test (air temperature up to 36°C and track temperature heading towards 60°C).
At Aston Martin Racing things went well during the first part of the session with Jos Verstappen setting the fast lap times of all the drivers there (according to his own website).
And unfortunately that is where the bad news starts as well…
Towards the end of the afternoon things went wrong at the famous Curva Parabolica. Verstappen was still driving and lost the car under braking. The Lola Aston Martin went off the track and slammed into the barriers, causing severe damage to the car.
Verstappen himself was quoted saying: “At the Parabolica I braked at the exact same place where I braked on the lap before. We could see that on the data, there wasn’t even a meter difference. But the moment I touched the brake pedal, the rear wheels locked and the car spun. After that I went into the tyre barrier at 308kph and that was the end of it. It was a 15G impact and the car is a write-off.”
From what we have heard the team has indeed found a crack in the tub. As there is no time between today and Le Mans to build a new tub it is likely that the 2008 Charouz Lola-Aston Martin chassis will be used at Le Mans with 2009 bodywork (just like it was at the opening round of the Le Mans Series at Barcelona after Enge’s crash at Paul Ricard).
Again…to be continued.
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