Oreca takes the lead at Portimao

Oreca, which announced this Friday its intention to compete in the ALMS Petit event Le Mans, displays the progress made in recent weeks. The Var team places its two cars in the top 3 of qualifying. Nicolas lapierre takes pole for the No. 11 crew (1:31:020) while Bruno Senna places the Oreca-AIM in third position (1:31:236). Slightly down since the start of the weekend, Aston Martin returns to the forefront by securing second and fifth places on the grid for crews 007 and 009. The only two diesel-powered cars in the field, the Audi R10 TDi of the Kolles team, are placed in sixth and eighth places. The beautiful Germans surround the Pescarolo of the eponymous era, which is more than a second behind the best qualifying time.

Certainly, in endurance, reliability matters more than position on the grid. But the two Oreca team cars show that the ??Le Mans?? project. initiated in 2007 is bearing fruit. Hugues de Chaunac gave himself three years to make Oreca a leading endurance team: the bet is on track to be won.

In LM P2, it was the Ginetta Zytek 09S-Zytek of the Quifel-ASM Team which set the best time (1:34:296). The Portuguese team shines on home soil, beating the Lola B08/80 Coupé? Judd from the RML team by four tenths. Among the French, group shot with the seventh and ninth places of Oak Racing and the eighth fastest time of WR-Zytek, with Bruce Jouanny.

In LM GT1, qualifying did not offer a very exciting match. The only two cars entered finished with almost two seconds difference. Yann Clairay (Luc Alphand Aventures team) took pole at the wheel of the Corvette C6.R. Stéphane Lémeret (Larbre Compétition) necessarily sets the second time, with the Saleen S7.

In LM GT2, the clash was much more competitive. It is finally the Felbelmayr-Proton team (Porsche 997 RSR) who wins the bet, ahead of the Ferrari F430 from JMW Motorsport and Team Modena. Patrick Pilet places the French team's Porsche 997 IMSA Performance in fourth place.

After the rivalry in timed stages, the cars will compete together on the track, this Saturday, from 20:15 p.m.