Many in the Audi compound tonight are left muttering under their breath and shaking their head in bewilderment. That's because the team was flat-out beat on Wednesday by Peugeot. It was the first day of practice for the 78th running of Le Mans, and the day started with a French celebration and ended with one as well.
This morning the winning Peugeot drivers from the 2009 race were given one last gift to remember their winning ways. The mayor of Le Mans hosted a ceremony in the center of town honoring David Brabham, Marc Gene and Alexander Wurz. They saw their handprints cast in bronze set in the cobble stones of Le Mans.
By the time everyone returned to the circuit it was time to get down to business, and that is exactly what the Peugeot team did. Throughout the late afternoon and into the evening it seemed each Peugeot driver--first Franck Montagny, then Stephane Sarraazine, and finally Sebastien Bourdais took turns setting the fastest lap. Bourdais finally grabbed the top spot with a time of 3:19.711. He has provisional pole; however the forecast for Thursday is for heavy rain and the French seem content to begin their race preparations.
 Rick Dole | Sebastien Bourdais is on the pole for Le Mans after the first day of qualifying. |
Preparation or lack there of seems to be the lowest common denominator with the Jaguar team. When the green flag dropped at 4 o'clock this afternoon the team didn't even start its engine. Problems continue to plague this effort, and while Ryan Dalziel and Marc Goossens completed a few laps, Paul Gentilozzi finished none. And there seems to be a lot of confusion on whether or not Gentilozzi has violated a rule requiring some sort of minimum lap requirement during the first day of practice. This is probably the least of his worries. As qualifying began at 10 p.m., the Jag crew had the engine apart trying to find another gremlin. Not a very good first impression and plenty of less-than-positive comments by the Radio Le Mans folks who have followed this team since its debut at the ALMS race at Laguna Seca in 2009.
Johnny Kane sits on pole in the Strakka Racing HPD. He is a second quicker that the Highcroft Racing HPD. Kane set his time of 3:36.168 on qualifying tires. David Brabham was the quickest Highcroft driver with a time of 3:37.202 while running on full tanks.
Former Formula One world champion Nigel Mansell is driving his first Le Mans with sons Greg and Leo. He had a moment during his first stint spinning off at the PlayStation chicane. No harm, no foul.
The same can't be said for the No. 12 Rebellion Racing Lola which was crashed while Marco Andretti was at the wheel. The car did not return to the track this evening.
 Rick Dole | One of the iconic sights of Le Mans: the Dunlop Bridge. |
The Risi and Corvette ALMS teams traded fastest times in GT2, and Gianmaria Bruni setting the best time in class.
While the 'Vette and Ferrari boys have to feel good following today, the Audi camp cannot. It has spent an enormous amount of euros redesigning and rebuilding the R15, and German sources close to the team confirmed the 2010 model has the same major problem as the 2009 version--understeer. With all of the money, all of the testing and all of the development, the Audi is essentially no quicker than last year's car. And the team is nearly four seconds slower than pole-sitting Peugeot. And 2.2 seconds slower than the semi-works Peugeot of Team Oreca.
The fastest Audi starts on row three.
Remember when any hint of the identity of the vaunted Stig was news? Even after Ben Collins outed himself as the mysterious super driver it took a few days before we truly believed that the biggest secret in British television had been spoiled. Judging by recent comments made by Jeremy Clarkson, we're starting to think there's little chance we'll ever see the Stig again on Top Gear, but that doesn't mean Collins is out of television for good.