Release n°3

Second practice session

Schneider (AMG-Mercedes) snatches pole from Toyota

The second and final practice session saw Martin Brundle's provisional pole from Wednesday in the no.28 Toyota beaten by Bernd Schneider's V8 engine CLK-LM Mercedes-Benz just before 20h00 in a time of 3 mn 35.544 secs almost a second quicker than the Japanese car. In the other Mercedes Christophe Bouchut missed a place on the front row by 4/10 secs as he was held up by traffic.

In the Toyota camp the race engines had already been fitted and André de Cortanze decided that it was not worth the risk fighting back. After the problems met the previous day on no.29 driven by Boutsen-Kelleners-Lees the gear change mounted on the steering wheel was adjusted during practice.

A slight feeling of disappointment was almost palpable in the Porsche GT1 camp as the practice engines had been left in the cars to try and top the time sheets. Even though balked on his quickest lap Scotsman, Allan McNish, admitted that pole was beyond his reach and Jorg Muller was not happy with the balance on his GT1 98. 
Yannick Dalmas took the wheel of the no.7 Porsche LMP 1 at the beginning of the session and reeled off a number of laps that were almost as quick as those of his teammates. Before nightfall the car improved its time by 7/10 secs to 3 mn 40.503 secs. Its sister-car, no.8, had had gearbox problems on Wednesday and its best was a 3 mn 45.452 secs.

Both Panozes used the session to set up for the race and no.45, looked after by David Price Racing, qualified on Wednesday evening in an excellent 3 mn 40.730. The best the no.44 entered by the Dams team could do was 3mn 44.602 secs.

Nissan used race engines in both sessions but fitted Bridgestone qualifying tires to try and get the cars further up the grid. Franck Lagorce was tenth quickest overall and was well satisfied : "Endurance is our speciality and we were hoping to qualify between the tenth and fifteenth positions. The most satisfying thing for us is to have a car that is well-balanced and easy to drive. Our three teams are all on about the same level with a Le Mans debutant in each".

Prototypes: Martini shines in the BMW

The BMW prototypes entered by the Rafanelli team continued their Le Mans apprenticeship. Pierluigi Martini underlined the car's increasing competitivity by setting the sixth quickest time overall in the second part of the session and of course, the fastest in the LMP 1 Category. The team is using the same V12 BMW engines for practice and the race.

Wayne Gardner put in some very quick laps in the only Riley & Scott entered even if he ended practice in the gravel trap just before midnight! Gache-de Radigués-Gardner are quietly confident about the race. The race engine arrived a day late due to strikes in France and will be fitted today.

Chez Courage, la n°13 a été arrêtée sur le circuit par un problème de commande de boîte. Bloqué au point mort, le pilote n'est pas parvenu à regagner les stands. L'équipe devrait disputer la course avec les mêmes mécaniques Nissan qu'aux essais.

In the Courage camp no.13 was stuck out on the circuit with a gear linkage problem and could not get back to its pit. The team will use the same Nissan engines in the race as in practice. A newer engine was fitted in the no.24 Courage-Porsche in the hands of Terada-Fréon-Thévenin and its times improved accordingly. It was the same thing for the venerable C36 entered by La Filière Elf, which went almost 2 seconds quicker. The team of Pescarolo-Grouillard-Montagny has but one objective, namely, to finish in the placings on Sunday in spite of having a down-on-power car in relation to their rivals.

Among the different Ferraris entered no.5 driven by Sospiri-Bouillon-Policand blew its qualifying engine on which an oil line had already failed the day before. The JB Racing Team fitted the race unit in less than 3 hours enabling Sospiri to put in a number of laps before the session's end. No.12 entered by Doyle Risi Racing with van de Poele as the lead driver improved its qualification time and got to within 5/10 secs of Moretti's 333 SP but then ran into engine problems forcing the team to change the injection system. Moretti's team had a trouble-free eveing and concentrated on finding the best balance for the race.

Final preparations in GT2

After Olivier Beretta's blinder on Wednesday eveing the Chrysler team continued setting up the cars for the race during the second session. Beretta did several laps in front of Luca Drudi in no.53 to show him the right lines as it is the Italian"s Le Mans debut.

Numerous Porsche GT2s ran into reliability problems. Roock Racing, which had lost compression due to defective rocker arms on Wednesday, had to change the clutch on Thursday on no.64. It then set the third fastest time of the Porsches.
The no.60 Playstation entry was a 1997 chassis with the 98 evolutions and in Jarier's hands was the quickest of the 911 GT2s in 4 mn 5.010 secs, third in the category behind the two Vipers nos 51 and 52. The second Larbre Competition car (no.72) had engine problems at the end of the session and the team was forced to dismantle the engine to have it checked by Porsche. 
The no.67 Haberthur entry was stopped on the track for an hour with fuel feed problems. After having the fuel tank repaired and the pump changed Michel Neugarten was still plagued with engine cut-outs due to fuel starvation. The team will have to check the whole fuel feed system to have a competitive car in the race.

While practice took place on a dry track the rain began to pour down just after the end of Thursday's session...