Dress rehearsal done - next stage the opening round for the four Aston Martins with the FIA WEC

As with any Prologue test, as far as Aston Martin/AMR powered teams are usually concerned, being the fastest of the bunch within this testing environment is never on the cards as they will usually cycle through familiarity of function for both crews and drivers (as well as the car as far as the new Valkyrie would have been concerned) before moving into setup and performance from all towards the end of the test.

From the fastest lap times entered from the #007 and #009 Hypercars and the #10 and #27 LMGT3 cars, that is precisely what has happened again although an early incident for the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman car with Derek DeBoer aboard put their continued involved within the test to a premature end with damaged sustained from a heavy impact with the guard rail.

What was most important was that the American bronze rated driver was unwise unhurt, his car did suffer extensive damage from the impact but is due to be back in fine form ahead of next week’s track action – the barrier damage did take nearly an hour to repair which did delay matters for the remaining thirty-five entries for the final session on Saturday.

Harry Tincknell gained the plaudit of being the fastest Valkyrie driver with a 1:41:089 is session 4 (still 2.118 seconds off the leading car over the Prologue test whilst Zacharie Robichon did likewise within the LMGT3 class for the #27 Heart of Racing team with a best lap time of 1:54:939, this time just 0.149 off the lead pace.

What all the teams will be eager to see now will be any Balance of Performance change ahead of the opening round form the data available to the series from the onboard telemetry of each car. With existing BoP parameters remaining in force until changed, it will again the case of no news is good news on that front.

Either way, the new Aston Martin powered Valkyrie again smashed the internet with its arrival and ‘soundtrack’!!

Photo credits Teams / FIA WEC / social media