Spyker Squadron 24hrs Le Mans 2010 from Spyker Squadron on Vimeo.
Spyker Squadron will start the 78th Le Mans 24 Hours in thirteenth position. In the first qualifying session on Thursday Jeroen Bleekemolen managed to improve his fastest lap time from Wednesday by posting a 4:04.057. Unfortunately traffic on his final flying lap cost him the chance to gain some additional places on the grid.
Shortly after the start of the session Peter Dumbreck came in and changed from intermediates to slicks. It was still too wet at the Porsche Curves though and the team changed the tyres back to intermediates on the next stop. Peter returned to the pit after being in the car for almost one hour and handed over the car to Jeroen.
The track conditions improved when Jeroen was behind the wheel and all teams started to set quicker lap times. Even though Jeroen improved his fastest time twice his final attempt to improve was curtailed when he was caught up in traffic and the Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R finished the session in thirteenth place in GT2.
As Peter missed out on night qualifying on Wednesday, he went out in the second qualifying session in order to complete at least three laps in the darkness. After doing several laps around the Circuit de la Sarthe the team brought the car in to change some bodywork parts. After another lap to test the parts, the car came in again and was pushed into the pit box where the team started to work on the car. Tonight the team will replace the engine with a new one for the race on Saturday.
Peter van Erp, Managing Director Spyker Squadron: “We are satisfied how it went. All three drivers have done well, we are happy with the car. The group of cars we are in is only separated by a few tenths of a second, not much if you consider a lap here takes just over 4 minutes. The team worked well and worked very disciplined. We will now replace the current engine with the race engine and tomorrow we will prepare for the race.”
Peter Dumbreck: “My running yesterday was curtailed due to my sore head. I was much happier to get out today. I experienced some damp conditions, some nighttime conditions and was able to bring my time down. I am happy. The track was a bit more quiet tonight, so I had the time to look around as it is a really different place in the darkness. Certain corners are very difficult to see at nighttime, so you have to find new markers. Had it been dry I could have pushed a bit harder but I think we have to be happy with what we got.”
The 78th Le Mans 24 Hours will start on Saturday at 3.00 p.m. and will be broadcasted live around Europe on Eurosport.
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