By Nancy Knapp Schilke - Motorsport.com
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) Japanese 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.
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