After two days of trials on the Paul Ricard circuit in the context of the prologue to the European Le Mans Series, the whole of the IDEC SPORT team is ready for the first race on the calendar, the Castellet 4-Hour Race (Sunday 14th April)
The 2019 prologue to the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) took place on the Paul Ricard circuit at Le Castellet on 8th and 9th April. The IDEC SPORT team arrived in the south of France with its two LMP2s: the Ligier #27 driven by Patrice Lafargue, Erik Maris and Stéphane Adler, and the Oreca #28 driven by Paul Lafargue, Paul-Loup Chatin and Memo Rojas.
With more than 17 hours of driving scheduled over the two days, there were a certainly a lot of miles to clock up. The rain from Sunday was still hanging around the track on Monday morning when the pit lane light turned green. Paul-Loup Chatin came out with the Oreca, but went back in immediately, as puddles on certain bends made driving tricky. They had to wait for more than an hour and for rival cars to go by before conditions improved. The two IDEC SPORT LMP2s took to the track and started their trials. The times dropped away, with Paul-Loup Chatin placing the #28 at the top of the rankings with a lap covered in 1’40’’747 . That time would remain the record for the morning session After three sessions that day, IDEC SPORT grabbed the third best time overall. The work that had been done on the two cars during adjustments and managing the tyres was encouraging.
The second day was used to organise the final details, such as the comfort of the Ligier drivers and some final settings for the Oreca. The team decided the latter would only do sixteen laps during the day. Those miles were enough to get the best time. With seven minutes to go to the end of the second session, two rivals improved on that time, so once again IDEC SPORT got the third best time of the day.
The drivers and engineers are both satisfied with the work done and feel confident for the first race of the season – the Castellet 4-Hour Race.
The programme:
Friday 12 – Free trials, 90 mins (11.05)
Saturday 13 – Free trial 2, 90 mins (09.00)
Samedi 13 – Qualifications, 10 mins (13h35)
Sunday 14 – 4-Hour Race, start at 12.30.
Get all the info about the IDEC SPORT team on social networks with our Facebook page: IDEC SPORT Racing, Twitter: @IDECSportRacing and Instagram: idecsport_racing_officiel17, as well as via the Android app: IDEC SPORT
