The Oreca #28 got the second best time, while the Ligier #27 finished nineteenth with some more adjustments necessary.
The sunshine was out in Italy for the first trial session for the Monza 4-Hour Race. The drivers quickly found their pace. In the Oreca, Paul-Loup Chatin got the second best time completing the 5.8 km in 1’36’’519, less than three-tenths of a second behind the best lap time.
As for the Ligier, the car did not behave quite as well with the front shifting and some brake adjustments required. After handing over the driving wheel, Stéphane Adler gave his impressions after his first drive in the temple of speed. “The track is very narrow. It’s not easy. You have to find your marks, as it is very fast. It’s complicated with six laps… I think we can gain a lot of time. Especially on the curve, as I braked too early and was late accelerating away again. I’m sure we’ll do better,” said Stéphane Adler.
At the end of a session reduced by a few minutes because of a red flag, the team felt pleased, as Frédéric Ducastel, the head of the IDEC SPORT team, told us. “Everything went well, in spite of the full course yellow and the red flags. Unfortunately the tyre pressure fell away and it is going to take a few laps to get the right set up for when the tyre temperature rises,” said Frédéric Ducastel to sum the situation up. “On top of that, it is complicated with all the cars, as the track here is narrow. Drivers can get stuck behind another car for some time.”
The Ligier drivers will be back behind the wheel this afternoon for a session reserved for bronze drivers. They have no time to lose, as the trio in #27 will only have thirty minutes and not a second longer.
