Jonny Cocker places Drayson Racing's Lola Coupe Judd LMP1 on the first pole for
the Asian Le Mans Series with a hot lap of 1:19.143 during qualifying on Okayama
International Circuit in the land of the Rising Sun. The Brit took four tours
on the twisty 3.703 km (2.3 mile) track that 14 years was the site of
the Japan Grand Prix Formula One race.
"Fantastic! Basically unbelievable. With the nature of the circuit and the
big steps we made with the car at Laguna we knew that we had a good chance
this weekend to be quick," said Cocker. "It's just an unbelievable feeling
for me as a driver to get the pole but everybody deserves this so much.
Everybody that has been involved in the programme has worked so hard under
what has been a very trying year at times. It shows that hard work,
dedication and a good team will come through in the end."
Due to the remote location of the circuit, the F1 cars only ran twice. Last
year, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) returned to the
circuit with the World Touring Car Championship. This year, the newly formed
Asian Le Mans Series has joined the WTCC in this weekend's event that will
also showcase Formula BMW Asian series Japan's Formula 4 series.
Cocker and Lord Paul Drayson are pleased with the performance of their new
prototype which made its debut in the American Le Mans Series Petit Le Mans
event in Road Atlanta this past September. The team had campaigned an Aston
Martin Vantage in the LMGT2 class in the European Le Mans Series and at
select ALMS events. Moving up to P1 has been a challenge for the team as
Cocker explained in his recent blog at www.americanlemans.com website.
"I'm feeling good this weekend, now having driven the car a few times at
Atlanta then a couple of weeks ago at Laguna; I'm starting to get to grips
with the differences between the Aston Martin Vantage GT2 and the Lola
coupe," said Cocker. "Each time we run the car we are learning lots. It's
certainly been a pretty steep learning curve and I still can't help but feel
that it's VERY, VERY fast in every single way. I suppose in making the step
up from GT2 to LMP1 that's pretty inevitable. It's all making sense. The
Lola coupe is an amazing car to drive and I'm looking forward to seeing how
it feels around this tight and twisty circuit."
The best passing area for the faster prototypes will be on the long brack
straight but they will have to deal with overtaking the two GT class cars
over each three hour race.
Drayson Racing earned their first ever pole in Le Mans style series. They
will start the two endurance races being held this weekend on the pole. "I
am absolutely delighted with the result and cannot describe the exhilaration
of seeing our car at the top of the time charts," smiled Lady Elspeth
Drayson, team co-owner. "I'd like to thank the team, Lola and Judd for their
hard work in overcoming this enormous disadvantage of the crash at Laguna
and repairing the car in the very short time available before this Series.
It shows the huge effort that everybody has made to prove the capability of
both car and drivers."
Christophe Tinseau and Shinji Nakano will slot second on the grid just 0.106
seconds adrift of pole winning time. Tinseau in the Sora Racing Pescarolo
Judd tried on his final lap to better his earlier time of 1:19.249 and that
of the pole winning time but fell short with a 1:19.370.
Team ORECA-Matmut-AIM's Nicolas Lapierre had a best lap of 1:19.548 in his
and Loic Duval's P1 Oreca AIM to take third on the overall grid. "We had a
couple of hours' free practice, which wasn't a lot of running time, all the
more so as conditions changed a lot during the day with different track
temperatures," said Lapierre.
"It wasn't easy to find the right setup especially as the track had very
little grip. It rubbered in slowly and it'll be different for the race. The
tyres go off fairly quickly on the circuit, which will be a very important
factor like the traffic," added the Frenchman. "We're on the pace and the
race is shorter than usual, but it won't be any easier. We'll have to be
consistent from start to finish to score a good result."
One of the unique aspects of the Asian series is that instead of one race
per weekend, they will have two -- both at 500 km each -- which Hugues de
Chaunac, ORECA Group president commented that "It provides us with the
opportunity to work on different parameters. In these shorter events
strategy will assume even greater importance."
The first pole winner for the Asian series LMP2 class was Matthieu Lahaye
for the Oak Racing team. Lahaye turned his fastest lap at a time of
1:23.790 in the Pescarolo Mazda he will share with Jacques Nicolet and
Richard Hein.
Stealing the show in LMGT1 was Takeshi Tsuchiya in the Aston Martin DBR9* for
the Japanese Hitotsuyama Team Nova and his co-driver Akihiro Tsuzuki.
Tsuchiya's flyer was a 1:27.515 on his fourth and final lap with over a two
second gap to the second fastest GT1.
Labre Competition's Carlo van Dam laid down his best at 1:29.827 to place
second in the team's Saleen S7R. Third in the GT1 class was JLOC
Lamborghini with Hiroyuki Iiri at the wheel, his best was a 1:30.679.
Tomas Enge laid down a flying lap at 1:30.721 to land the
LMGT2 pole for Team Hong Kong Racing. Enge was only 0.126 seconds faster in
the Aston Martin Vantage* over Marc Lieb in a Porsche.
Leib's best for Team Felbermayr-Proton was 1:30.847 in the No. 77 Porsche
911 GT3 RSR. Third in GT2 was the JimGainer Racing's Ferrari F430 GT
piloted by Tetsuya Tanaka with a 1:31.283.
Without a doubt the drivers from Japan or those who have raced on the
Okayama circuit have a bit of an edge but the more experienced sports car
racers will show their knowledge of driver changes and endurance events during
the two races. Today was a learning curve of both the track and the cars.
The weather was cloudy but dry today, rain could yet change the track
conditions.
*Editor's note:
When the starting lineup is released after Saturday morning's warmup, the two
pole winners in GT1 and GT2 will be at the back of the grid. In
post-qualifying technical inspection, both Aston Martin cars were found with
rear wings that did not comply with technical regulations.
Per the Le Mans Series press release: "The scrutineers saw that the rear
wings of the two cars, which complied during scrutineering, were no longer
in compliance with the regulations after the qualifying session, " stated
Jacques Olivier, the President of the Stewards of the Meeting, made up of
Takashi Mitarashi from Japan and Frenchman, Jean-Pierre Baudriller.
