The final day of the 2022 European Le Mans Series Official Test at the Circuit Paul Ricard saw the no9 Prema Racing Oreca 07-Gibson set the fastest overall lap ahead of the opening race, the 4 Hours of Le Castellet.
Reigning champion Louis Deletraz posted a 1m43.662 lap of the 5.771km track in the 4-hour morning session, just 0.097s faster than his teammate Ferdinand Habsburg.Both times were faster than the best lap on Day One, set by Yifei Ye in the no37 Cool Racing Oreca (1m43.856), which was also beaten by Patrick Pilet in no28 IDEC Sport Oreca, the French driver setting a time of 1m43.773.
The top LMP2 Pro/Am car during the two-day test was the no51 Team Virage Oreca with a 1m43.941 lap.
The overall fastest time in the LMP3 class was set in the morning session on Day One by the no17 Cool Racing Ligier of Malthe Jakobsen.The Dane’s 1m50.106 lap proved to be unbeatable in the four sessions that followed, with Alex Kapadia in the no5 RLR MSport Ligier coming closest with a 1m50.126 (+0.020s) lap in this morning’s session.
The no15 RLR MSport Ligier of Valentino Catalano was third quickest overall with a 1m50.233, also set in this morning’s session.
In LMGTE it proved to be a Ferrari battle top set the fastest time of the two-day test, with the no57 Kessel Racing F488 of Mikkel Jensen taking the top spot from reigning champions Iron Lynx by the narrowest of margins.The Dane’s lap of 1m54.058 was just 0.001 seconds ahead of the no60 Iron Lynx Ferrari, with Davide Rigon posting a 1m54.059 lap time in this morning’s session.
The no77 Proton Competition Porsche was third fastest with Gianmaria Bruni’s 1m54.227 lap in the afternoon on Day One.
The 2022 European Le Mans Series will be back on track on Friday with the first of two practice sessions at 11h30.
CLICK HERE for the result from the morning session on Day Two of the Official Test
CLICK HERE for the result from the afternoon session on Day Two of the Official Test
Q: How has the two-day test gone so far?
Louis Deletraz: “It's going well. There’s been some long days with a lot of testing; a lot of driving, with a last-minute change of teammate in the crew because Juan (Correa) injured himself unfortunately. So, we have some extra work.”
Q: Prema are a new team this season and you know the team quite well, don't you?
LD: Yes, I know the team quite well. I mean, I've been competing against them for many years, and you know, I'd rather be with them than that against them. They’ve won everything in Formula Two and three. So, hopefully we can carry on and add some success to this.”
Q: Obviously, you are here as the reigning champion with a new team.You've got a lot of competition. Have you looked at other competitors test times and how do they compare?
LD: “The competition is incredible this year, there is really a lot of cars; a lot of cars that can win as well and I think the race will be very exciting. So, I think, as expected, Cool Racing is very strong, Panis as well, United (Autosports) and hopefully us as well.We will see on Sunday evening, but I mean it will be a hard race for sure.
Q: What do you think of the circuit here at Le Castellet?
LD: “I enjoy the venue as always. I mean, it's very wide. It's nice for testing. For racing, you can be go a bit too wide in my own opinion, but it's still a very nice track and the layout is very technical. So, I always enjoy to be here.”
Q: How is the test session going?
John Falb: “Yeah, we're here at the prologue at Paul Ricard and looking forward to a great season back in ELMS. Two days of testing and it goes by in a flash. You think you have all the time in the world and then here we are the last session. We’ve got a lot of wind, so it is making it difficult to really fine tune the car. Now we’re looking forward to the races and getting going.”
Q: How are you getting on with your new Australian teammates?
JF: “Well, according to the Aussies, one of them is Tasmania! But, yes, they're both Australian and Alex (Peroni) and James (Allen) are doing a great job. James brings a tonne of experience.Alex is relatively new to the car, but he's done a couple days of testing and getting straight up to speed, so it's good.”
Q: You're defending your LMP2 Pro/Am title.There are seven cars in the championship; you think you're going to do it again?
JF: “Of course, we're going to give it everything we can. The competition feels like it's stepped up another notch. Really good showing with seven cars that could probably win it. But, we're going to do what we can.”
