© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat
The Le Mans Series weekend at Spa-Francorchamps kicked off at Friday afternoon 16.30 local time. Grey skies welcomed the drivers as they prepared for their first laps in Belgium in 2009. Red flags interrupted the 90 minutes long session twice and when it started to rain as well it was sure that times of this session could not be compared properly.
Early on in the session the #009 Lola Aston Martin lost its right rear wheel on the track and the car came to a halt on the track. A flatbed transporter was sent out to recover Darren Turner and his Gulf-liveried car.
Almost into the second half of the session the red flag came out for the second time when the Ibanez Racing Service Courage LC75 (#28) went off. The damage on the car and the position the car was in meant that the flatbed transporter was sent out once more.
As the first red flag came out the rain that had been expected all day started to fall as well in brief showers. Starting at the back of the circuit it soon rained in the paddock area as well and the track got wet and slippery quite quickly and teams used intermediates to run on the track.
Towards the end of the session and with the rain gone again a dry line started to form and lap times dropped again to pre-rain levels.
In LMP1 the battle between Peugeot and Oreca was really on. Nicolas Lapierre and Marc Gené posted identical times on the 7 kilometers long circuit, sharing the fastest time of the session (2:06.740). The second Team Oreca Matmut AIM Oreca 01 was only a tenth of a second behind. The second Peugeot and the #16 Pescarolo were also within a second of the fastest two cars. The Kolles Audi were not yet able to get close to the top times.
Zytek was quick in LMP2 for most of the session, with the Barazi-Epsilon Zytek 07S was fastest, at some point even between several LMP1s. In the final minutes of the session, with the track started to dry, several drivers improved their lap times. Tommy Erdos in the #25 RML Lola kept improving his lap times and eventually beat the time set by the Barazi Zytek. At the end the Brazilian had posted a 2:11.920, 1.724s quicker than the Zytek and good enough for ninth overall. Third fastest was the Quifel ASM Team Zytek 09S, which was almost 2 seconds slower than the RML Lola
In GT1 the IPB Spartak Racing Lamborgini Murciélago R-GT was by far the quickest car in the session. The #55 Lamborghini was almost three seconds quicker than the Alphand Corvette C6.R and over fourteen seconds ahead of the Jetalliance Racing Aston Martin DBR9.
FBR posted the fastest time in GT2. The whole session turned out to be a Ferrari show with the F430 GT2s taking positions 12-3-4-5-6. The #91 of Rosa-Montermini-Petrobelli was quickest in 2:24.488. The Hankook-Farnbacher car was second fastest, one second away from the FBR car while JMW Motorsport was third fastest at two seconds.
The sixth placed Virgo Motorsport Ferrari went off right at the end of the session with Sean McInerney hitting the barrier with the rear end of his car, damaging the left rear off the car as well as the left exhaust. Best of the rest was the SNORAS Spyker Squadron #85, ahead of all four Porsches.
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