It was always going to be a tall order to get decent points in the WRX, but this didn't stop my one and only Le Mans run of the day being rather fun for what it was worth.
18:20 Manufacturers
Surprised by the variety on offer here, though I was the only Subaru entry in the #16 car. Other entrants included four AMGs, four Corvettes, two pairs of Astons and Ferraris respectively, and one each of a Jag, Supra, Citroën, Viper, Porsche, Alfa and even a
Lancer Evo. Almost got collected by the Alfa (in Martini colours) towards the end of the warm-up session, and decided very early into qualifying that I would sacrifice slipstream for a clean, unobstructed lap. The result was a 3:58.070 with no penalties, almost 1.7 seconds up on the fastest I had done in testing. For reference, my fastest FP time was a 3:56.703 set earlier this afternoon.
Lining up 15th, I was among the majority who committed to the no-stop and had no concerns over burning up fuel on the grid formation sequence given the WRX's excellent fuel economy. Four (a black and orange Corvette, the orange AMG, the Citroën and the red Ferrari at the very back) would start on Mediums, surprisingly enough.
Problems began immediately as the orange AMG lit up the rears through the second Ford chicane, which I was lucky to ghost through as I snaked through on cold Hards. As soon as we get to the Mulsanne Straight the Evo makes up two places by drafting past me and the Porsche, though not without going off the road completely at the first chicane. Though I lost one position in the process, I hung round the back of both cars while a silver AMG closed in and gave me a couple of taps. The orange AMG on Mediums also caught up to the back of the train the next time we cleared the Ford chicanes; in his desperation to regain ground he went beyond the white line passing the Silver Arrow through the Dunlop Curve, picking up a half-second penalty.
At the Antares chicane, the Lancer fishtails across the apex, bringing me back up into 16th as the Silver Arrow finally slips by. The Orange Arrow follows suit on the run to the Porsche Curves, but spontaneously rage-quits upon receiving another penalty for running wide. By the start of Lap 3, the red Ferrari had also found his way past, but a small consolidation was the fact that the Scooby had set a purple first sector. Furthermore, the battle between the Ferrari and Porsche up front meant more opportunities to stay close and potentially regain my original position. It was once the Ferrari pulled away with the Silver Arrow that the fun really began....
Lap 4, I get a draft on the Porsche and run side-by-side with him to the Antares chicane. There was a little scare under braking where, even with forward brake balance, my car slightly pivoted into his driver-side door, but we survived with little more than a slight bit of contact. I was slightly too far back to pull off a pass at the inside of the PlayStation chicane, but found the guts to sew one up coming into Mulsanne Corner. The next lap or so was spent exchanging places with the Porsche out of an attempt to draft our way back within range of the Silver Arrow, who picked up two penalties and at one point tried to force his way past the blue and white Ferrari. One lap from the end, the red Ferrari retires after clipping too much of the kerb at the Esses. The battle continued, but the Martini Alfa was fast approaching...
Several interesting things happened on the final lap. The first was that the Corvette on Mediums - who had spent the entire race fighting the Supra for the lead - came into the pits for his mandatory stop. There was a moment where I legitimately thought we could take advantage of his time loss in the pits, but that wasn't to be, sadly. The second was that the Alfa dipped into the 3:59s and gained enough ground to start fighting us. On Mulsanne Straight, he slipstreams and dives up my inside over the run-off area as I make another pass on the Porsche. He pulls back onto the main track as soon as we reach the braking zone, and rather than hang the Porsche to dry I decide to back out and let him fight back. I watched as the Porsche swept around the outside before the PlayStation chicane and the Alfa returned the favour heading up to Mulsanne Corner.
For whatever reason, the Alfa cut across in front of the Porsche just before we reached the kink, and the fight only got rougher from there. Again, he touches the Porsche just before Indianapolis, but the Porsche makes it through anyway. Then, coming up to the Ford chicane, the Porsche defends from the Alfa which heads for the outside over the pit entry lines. The Alfa skates over the kerb; there's bumping, bashing... and the next thing I know, it loses it over the red sausage. Granted, he had already gone in too hot in his desperate bid to grab another place, but in a way it made me extra glad to have held fire and settle for a clean, comfortable 16th behind the Porsche. Up ahead, the Silver Arrow had also lost it over the final gravel trap, but managed to reverse over the line before we could reach him!
But that's not all...
The Citroën, one of the Medium starters, chose
not to pit and so was slapped with a 60-second penalty that promoted me to 15th. It was at this point that I decided to leave it there as I felt this was the best I could do in the WRX. Generally, the car felt consistent, very kind on tyres with brake balance -3 and almost the complete opposite to the Ford GT I raced with on this combo last year. Grippier, more economical, but suffering massively on the straights as a result of its lower top-end power. Didn't detract too much, however, from an enjoyable, penalty-free run with some quality slipstream battles against that Porsche. It'll be particularly interesting to see how things work out on the Nürburgring where the WRX already feels confident in test lobbies over the Nordschleife portion.
