Test Day - Half Way

09:00hrs and we are all set to go... we are producing the words for the ACO English Live text on www.24h-lemans.com. We may be bright eyed and bushy tailed but the weather isn't! After the hot sticky sunny weather upto today it is now all change and it is distinctly damp. This will irritate the teams since they badly want a dry track at some point.. it is all very well having a wet track but it is pretty unlikely that the entire 24hrs of the race will be wet. The weather forecast suggests that things might improve this afternoon. The air temperature is currently 20.4C.. the track is 24.4C and humidity is 49% not entirely sure how useful this is but at least you know.
Technical scrutineering seems to have gone without any dramas and we have all 56 cars ready to go. The session started at 09;00hrs and several cars are already out on track feeling their way around.
We were not unduly surprised when the news broke that the infamous Green GT 'Hydrogen bomb' car didn't make it to testing and it won't be seen this year. The spare slot ( along with 'Garage 56' as it is known!) on the grid has been filled by the #75 Prospeed Competition Porsche 911 GT RSR. This is a Belgian outfit, who know Le Mans well and the drivers are Emmanuel Collard, François Perodo and Sébastien Crubilé. Perodo-Crublé and they have already raced in the first two rounds, Silverstone (GB) and Imola (I), of the European Le Mans Series. 
The 'innovative' stuff will re-emerge next year when Nissan are threatening to bring out their all electric machine. Rumour has it that they will change batteries during the pit stops. There is also a hybrid Aston Martin under development. which raced at The Nurburgring 24hrs. ( but didn't finish). The morning session really didn't prove much, apart from the fact the circuit never dried out and it was very slippery, greasy and cold. Any number of cars spun, tested the gravel traps and brought out lots of yellow flags. The only really newsworthy incident was when the #2 Audi went off rather inexplicably after Terte Rouge. The interview was hard to understand but it seems that Duval put a couple of wheels on the kerbs and lost concentration. This was after 17 laps. The car was recovered and we are told it will be out again this afternoon.
If you would like to see the times they can be found on theACO Live feed