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Friday practice for the next round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, the 6 Hours of Imola, is done and dusted now, and Ferrari look to be the leaders on long run pace.
The Italian squad's #51 car set the fastest average lap time of the day in the second practice session, giving them almost half a second a lap on their rivals.
Behind them it looks relatively close, with Toyota, Porsche and Cadillac all in the mix.
Phil Oakley
However, in the first session, it was actually Cadillac who were quicker on average.
Sebastien Bourdais, in the #38 Cadillac V-Series.R, run by JOTA, set a 1:34.339 to go quickest on average, over a seven lap stint from lap 25 to 32 of the car's total. Behind him was the #8 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi, just under half a second off.
Ferrari's fastest in FP2 was a 01:35.093 average, set by Miguel Molina, from laps 13-19 for the Spaniard.
In all, six cars were within a second of Bourdais in FP1, with a further seven cars within two seconds on average. This included both Peugeots, all three Ferraris, the Toyotas, BMWs, a factory Porsche, an Alpine, and the Proton-run customer Porsche.
The two Aston Martins, in only their second WEC race, were the only team with both cars outside of this two second window. Alex Riberas, in the #009, and Tom Gamble in the #007, were two and five seconds slower on average than Bourdais. Two of Gamble's laps were impacted by a full course yellow, which likely brought his average down.
The #35 Alpine's average, meanwhile, was set by Ferdinand Habsburg, right at the start of the session. With cold tyres and a green track, it can be assumed this lap time is not representative of Alpine's pace, especially as the #36 car, with Jules Gounon at the wheel, was in the mix over a 15 lap stint.
In FP2, however, Ferrari's pace started to show. Alessandro Pier Guidi, in the session-topping #51 car, set a 01:33.517 to go fastest on average, almost half a second quicker than Buemi in the #8 Toyota.
Pier Guidi set the average over a 14 lap stint, from lap 37 to 51. Buemi, meanwhile, did a slightly shorter stint, laps 15-25. This may not mean anything, but it's potentially ominous Ferrari can go longer on tyres and yet set a faster average lap time.
Once again, it was fairly close in the midfield. The #5 Porsche was third, followed by the #50 Ferrari — the only team to have both cars in the top five in FP2 — and the #93 Peugeot.
It looks like it could be a decent weekend for Peugeot, fourth fastest on average in FP1 and fifth in FP2.
Cadillac were quite a way back in the second session, 1.6 seconds off Pier Guidi and Ferrari. But, as Cadillac's FP1 pace was faster, if you put that lap time into the the second session times, they'd be sixth.
Phil Oakley
So it's not looking quite so bad, and that's an FP1 time on a less weathered in track at a different time of day.
Aston Martin were at the back in what looks to be another learning weekend for the British manufacturer and Anglo-American partner team, The Heart of Racing. That said, they're not miles off the pace, with more learning and analysis undoubtedly taking place overnight.
So, if we combine these times to create averages for each manufacturer, we end up with a graph that looks like the above. As we've combined each average for each team — so four lap time values in total — note this can be skewed, like the unrepresentative lap for Habsburg and Alpine.
But, it gives us some idea of the order, with Ferrari out in front and a battle between Cadillac, Porsche, Toyota, BMW and perhaps surprisingly, Peugeot.
We can then add Alpine into this group oncer the unrepresentative lap has been removed. In the graph above we're using the best average for each team from the two sessions — so two lap time values.
Ferrari are, notably, ahead here. They've got well over half a second on their nearest challengers, Toyota.
Alpine slot into third here, behind Toyota — just! — and ahead of French rivals Peugeot. Perhaps surprisingly, Cadillac and Porsche are quite a way back here, with BMW splitting them. Aston are only slightly behind Porsche in what they may see as encouraging pace.
'Ended up in the top six, so not too bad,' said Cadillac's Earl Bamber after FP2. ]
'Good baseline, we had a good test here. We have a bit of work to do overnight, but at least everything lines up from the test. The top 10 is incredibly competitive this weekend, so pushing all the small details and we’ll see how quali goes tomorrow.'
Likewise, his teammate Alex Lynn said, 'I think it’s very competitive out there, a lot of fast cars. No doubt Ferrari looks extremely strong, but behind them I think there will be a good fight for the rest.'
But, this could all be rendered meaningless. As we know teams do not push hard in practice, either through concealing their true pace, or not wanting to put unnecessary stress on the cars.
The weather, too, could play a part, as it did to great effect last year. The current forecast is for on-off showers all afternoon on Sunday, which could spice things up considerably.
That's it for now. We'll be back with some analysis from qualifying tomorrow, plus any tidbits from the third free practice session.
Feature image: DPPI / WEC
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