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Pescarolo fastest in Le Mans warm-up

Pescarolo led the way during the warm-up session in preparation for today's 24-hour race at Le Mans. The ...

Pescarolo led the way during the warm-up session in preparation for today's 24-hour race at Le Mans. The #16 Pescarolo Sport C60 Judd driven by Eric Comas, Jean Christophe Boullion and Emmanuel Collard completed 9 laps and set a fastest time of 3m 37.042s around the 13.650km circuit. The car was one of the first out on the circuit but started pushing hard in the second half of the session to go fastest. The sister car of Sebastien Loeb, Eric Helary and Soheil Ayari finished in fourth place.

#16 Pescarolo Sport Pescarolo Judd: Emmanuel Collard, Jean-Christophe Boullion, Erik Comas.
Photo by Tom Haapanen.
The Champion Racing Audi R8 pair finished in second and third places with the #3 car of JJ Lehto, Marco Werner and Tom Kristensen a couple tenths ahead of the #2 of Emanuele Pirro, Frank Biela and Allan McNish. Both cars took to the track at the very start of the session, ran quickly throughout and completed 11 laps each - more than any other car. McNish suffered a moment when he went straight on at Ralentisseur Playstation early in the session but was able to rejoin.

The Intersport Racing Lola AER of Sam Hancock, Liz Halliday and Gregor Fisken was fastest in the LM P2 class with the Kruse Motorsport Courage Judd of Tim Mullen, Ian Mitchell and Phil Bennett right behind. Aston Martin headed the GT1 class with the car of David Brabham, Stephane Sarrazin and Darren Turner, and the Alex Job Racing Porsche GT3-RSR driven by Mike Rockenfeller dominated the GT2 class with a series of strong laps midway through the session.

#3 Champion Racing Audi R8: JJ Lehto, Marco Werner, Tom Kristensen.
Photo by Tom Haapanen.
All 49 cars took to the track during the session although the Rollcentre Racing Dallara LMP900 Nissan of Michael Krumm pitted at the end of its installation lap with smoke coming out of the engine. The Larbre Competition Ferrari 550 Maranello of Patrice Goueslard stopped on it's first lap out of the pits at the exit of Tertre Rouge with a mechanical problem and also the Raymond Narac Posrsche GT3-RSR of Romain Dumas went off at the exit of Indianapolis on its second flying lap.

The Petersen Motorsports / White Lightning Racing Porsche GT3-RSR returned to the circuit after suffering a big accident in qualifying. The car had suffered substantial damage to its front and had to be taken away to a Porsche repair facility that night, but returned to the paddock on Friday evening and the team finished rebuilding the car at 2.30am local time. The car completed three laps at the hands of Jorg Bergmeister and was running second its class but returned to the pitlane with a leak in a radiator pipe.

#85 Spyker Squadron Spyker C-8 Spyder: Tom Coronel, Donny Crevels, Peter van Merkensteyn.
Photo by Tom Haapanen.
The Gerard Welter WR LMP2 car, driven by Sylvain Boulay, suffered a heavy twitch and subsequent spin at the exit of Virage de Mulsanne and pulled off the circuit in the closing minutes of the session, and the Jim Matthews's JMB Racing Ferrari 575 GTC crawled back to the pitlane with a right-front puncture. Also the Jim Gainer International Dome Mugen of Ryo Michigami, Seiji Ara and Katsutomo Kaneichi ran through the gravel at the end of the session but rejoined.

The weather for the session was perfect with clear blue sky, a temperature of 20 degrees Celsius and increasing, and a light south-westerly breeze.

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