Alpine entry strike for ELMS trials

The event of these two days of official testing of theELMS, on the Paul-Ricard circuit, was the first appearance of theAlpine No. 36. And the beautiful blue didn't miss her debut since Nelson Panciatici took her to the top of the timesheet thanks to a lap completed in 1'47"652. Pierre Ragues and Tristan Gommendy (the reinforcement of 24 Hours of Le Mans), were also present for the occasion. Philippe Sinault's team worked a lot over two days, particularly on the tires. Indeed, the switch from Dunlop to Michelin tires is not without consequences on the behavior of the car, and induces an inevitable change of set-up. “I am satisfied with the work done here, comments team principal Philippe Sinault. Michelin had brought us several different specifications to test. Now we will have to analyze all this data before choosing the types of tires we will use this year. Another important point: all three drivers were able to ride. We had a very encouraging run to get a time this morning. This bodes well for the start of the season. » Over the two days, theAlpine n°36 will have covered the A252V1 configuration of the Var route 2 times, for a total of 1459,332 km covered. Enough to store as much information as possible before the 3 Hours of Silverstone, the opening round of the ELMS, on Saturday April 13.

In second place, at 0”501 from the reference time, we find Franck Mailleux. The Frenchman, who still does not have a program this year, has proven once again that he is one of the references in the category. And yet, he was driving the Morand Racing Morgan-Judd for the very first time. Karim Ajlani and Natacha Gachnang were also involved in this car. The latter being the only one confirmed at the moment. The top three is completed by the Zytek Z11SN-Nissan Jota Sport entrusted to the British Simon Dolan and Oliver Turvey.

Alpine shines in LM P2 and in… LM PC! Junior driver for the French firm, Paul Loup Chatin set the best time in the class at the wheel of the Team's Oreca 09 FLM Endurance Challenge #47. By completing a lap in 1’52”278, the former Tech 1 Racing resident in Formula Renault 2.0 marks an excellent debut in prototypes, at only 21 years old. He has in fact allowed himself the luxury of ahead of Soheil Ayari, whose talent at the wheel of an LM P is no longer in doubt.

In GTE, Ram Racing leaves the scene with the best time thanks to Johnny Mowlem (Ferrari 458 Italia n°28).