All systems set in Barcelona for ELMS and LMC openers this weekend
Thursday, April 20, 2023
The LMP3 and GT3 cars of the Le Mans Cup Series were first out on Tuesday with the Aston Martin Racing brand being represented this time by the Racing Spirit of Leman team as they step up to the GT3 class for the first time this season with AMR.
With a new platform only delivered to the team just a day ahead of their Prologue test day, laps were in short supply for the driver duo of Arnold Robin and Valentin Hasse-Clot as the team had to get to ‘know’ their latest racing acquisition first.
Nine laps ran within the opening session of Tuesday was still sufficient for them to claim P3 in class with a best lap time of 1:42:645 before completing thirty-five laps in session two to finish P2 with a time of 1:41:776.
They will now run their first laps of the new 2023 season on Friday with Free Practice 1 and 2 before Qualifying and opening race of the season on Saturday with forty-two cars expected to be on the grid again, with the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman AMR one of a twelve strong GT3 class.
Then there was a two-day Prologue Test for the LMP2, LMP3 and GTE grid of the European Le Mans Series where another forty-two cars took part with the mandatory Prologue test with another three AMR Vantage GTE cars amongst its twelve strong GTE class.
Racing in its swansong year for the GTE class, TF Sport bring another two cars to the grid with both the all French #72 Project 24 car of Max and Arnold Robin with Valentin Hasse-Clot alongside the #95 car of John Hartshorne, Jonny Adam and series debutant Ben Tuck. Completing the trio of Aston’s will be the new #44 GMB Motorsport entry for the last season’s Le Mans Cup GT3 winning team and featuring a driver line up of Jens Reno Moller, Gustav Birch and AMR factory driver Nikki Thiim.
All three cars ran in four of the five available sessions this week, missing only yesterday’s night session (as did all bar two GTE entries) to complete a near 700 lap programme between them over the two days with the fastest lap (between them) being set by the #44 car in this morning’s session.
Being another Balance of Performance ran series, the AMR Vantage GTE will be running a set of performance parameters very close (different tyres though) to that of the World Endurance Championship, we have all seen within the opening two rounds of that just how the Vantage GTE fairs with that in comparison.
Following a similar programme of events as the Le Mans Cup, tomorrow sees the first officially timed sessions of the new season with Free Practice 1 and 2 before Qualifying again on Saturday and the start of Sunday’s four-hour opener starting at 11:30hrs local.
Photo credits – Series / Teams / A Lofthouse
