The first Free Practice for the Silverstone Four-Hour race, the fourth round of the 2018 European Le Mans Series took place on Friday morning under sunny but cloudy skies with both air and track temperatures of 16°. Racing Engineering used the ninety-minute session to allow their French drivers, Norman Nato, Paul Petit and Matthieu Vaxiviére to set up their Oreca 07-Gibson for the British circuit, Matthieu is replacing Olivier Pla for this round only. Once again, as in the previous three rounds, the Spanish team were right on the pace with Norman setting the fourth fastest time of 1:47.549 after twenty minutes. After twenty-five minutes Norman returned to the pits and Matthieu took over for his first drive in the Racing Engineering car, and he was quickly setting some quick laps, just a few tenths slower than Norman. At the forty-five minute mark Matthieu pitted and it was Paul’s turn at the wheel and he too was quickly up to speed as he continued the good work done by his two teammates and he stayed in the car for the rest of the session. After the ninety minutes the Spanish team’s car finished in fourth position with the time Norman had set early in the session.
The afternoon Free Practice saw the weather cloudier and the air and track temperatures rising a little to 19° and, once again, it was Norman who took to the track first for Racing Engineering as the team continued to work on their race set-up and he set a time of 1:48.325 before pitting after twelve minutes, returning to the track five minutes later. Norman soon reduced his time to 1:47.032 to lie fifth before pitting again after thirty minutes. After a five-minute stop Matthieu took over and, as he had in the morning session, he was soon setting times close to those set by Norman. With just over thirty minutes remaining Matthieu pitted and Paul took over for the remainder of the session, again lapping at similar speed to his two teammates, and at the end of the ninety minutes the Racing Engineering team finished in sixth position.
Timetable:
Qualifying – LMP2 – 18/08/2018 11:40 (12:40 CEST) – Duration: 10 min.
Race – 18/08/2018 14:30 (15:30 CEST) – Duration: 240 min.
