LMS: Charouz Racing Systems LMP1 completes first practice sessions - 04.04.2008

Charouz Racing Systems participated in the two one hour practice sessions that marked the start of the 2008 Le Mans Series. Drivers Jan Charouz and Stefan Mucke have another opportunity for free practice tomorrow before qualifying begins. Sunday will see the first race of the season and the first race for the team’s new Aston Martin powered closed cockpit LMP1 prototype In today’s sessions, the team finished sixth and twelfth overall.

The team was happy with running and sixth in the first practice session placed the car as the top ranking petrol car in the LMP1 class. Lap times were not priority for the team who worked on the set-up of the car. There was a heavy traffic, as the first round of the 2008 Le Mans Series has a total of almost 50 cars entered over four classes.

Fellow Aston Martin Racing works driver, Tomas Enge, set the fastest time of the GT1 class during the second practice session in the Team Modena Aston Martin DBR9, which he is sharing with Antonio Garcia.

George Howard-Chappell, Aston Martin Racing Technical director: "We worked though a careful programme today of giving Jan and Stefan some time to acquaint themselves with the Aston Martin powered prototype around the Barcelona track, working towards a race set-up and understanding our Michelin tyres. The programme is still in its infancy and we are very short of spares, so we adopted a full no-risk strategy. Quite where we are on pace is difficult to say, but we should get a good idea of this tomorrow in qualifying. The car ran reliably today and we are very pleased with that. Overall I'm happy with progress."

Antonin Charouz, Team principal: “I have been fully satisfied so far. There are a lot of cars out on the track and fast prototypes have to find their way through the slower cars. The prototypes should have more space in the qualifying because the prototypes and GTs will have separate sessions. I believe that we should be the fastest petrol car.”

Results of the 1st practice
1 LAMY Pedro, SARRAZIN Stephane (Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP LMP1) 1:33.250
2 CAPELLO Rinaldo, McNISH Allan (Audi R10 TDI LMP1) -0.429
3 GENE Marc, MINASSIAN Nicolas (Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP LMP1) -0.531
4 VAN MERKSTEIJN Peter, VERSTAPPEN Jos (Porsche RS Spyder LMP2) -0.758
5 ROCKENFELLER Mike, PREMAT Alexandre (Audi R10 TDI LMP1) -1.812
6 MUCKE Stefan, CHAROUZ Jan (Lola Aston Martin LMP1) -2.726
7 CAMPBELLWALTER Jamie, HALL Stuart, ORTIZ Felipe (Creation CA07 - Aim LMP1) -2.953
8 AMARAL Miguel, PLA Olivier (Lola B05/40 AER LMP1) -3.172
9 COLLARD Emmanuel, BOULLION Jean-Christophe (Pescarolo Judd LMP1) -3.492
10 NIELSEN John, ELGAARD Casper (Porsche RS Spyder LMP2) -3.594
Started 44 cars

Results of the 2nd practice
1 LAMY Pedro, SARRAZIN Stephane (Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP LMP1) 1:33.352
2 GENE Marc, MINASSIAN Nicolas (Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP LMP1) -0.062
3 PREMAT Alexandre, ROCKENFELLER Mike (Audi R10 TDI LMP1) -0.648
4 CAPELLO Rinaldo, McNISH Allan (Audi R10 TDI LMP1) -1.375
5 PANIS Olivier, LAPIERRE Nicolas (Courage-Oreca Judd LMP1) -1.422
6 PRIMAT Harold, TINSEAU Christophe (Pescarolo Judd LMP1) -2.492
7 CAMPBELLWALTER Jamie, HALL Stuart, ORTIZ Felipe (Creation CA07 - Aim LMP1) -2.922
8 BARAZI Juan, VERGERS Michael (Zytek 07S Zytek LMP2) -3.015
9 ORTELLI Stephane, AYARI Soheil (Courage-Oreca Judd LMP1) -3.039
10 COLLARD Emmanuel, BOULLION Jean-Christophe (Pescarolo Judd LMP1) -3.390
11 ELGAARD Casper, NIELSEN John (Porsche RS Spyder LMP2) -3.507
12 MUCKE Stefan, CHAROUZ Jan (Lola Aston Martin LMP1) -3.531
29  GARCIA Antonio, ENGE Tomas (Aston Martin DBR9 LMGT1 - 1. in category) -12.802
Started 48 cars

1000 km Barcelona - timetable
Saturday, 5 April
09:45 – 10:45 Free Practice 3
14:15 – 14:35 Qualifying (GT cars)
14:40 – 15:00 Qualifying (prototypes)
Sunday, 6 April
09:00 – 09:20 Warm-up
11:35 – 17:35 Race (215 laps)
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