Russian Age Racing Test Day notes

RUSSIAN AGE RACING THIRD FASTEST IN CLASS AT LE MANS

The Russian Age Racing team was delighted with third place in class at the Le Mans 24-hours test weekend. Christophe Bouchut, driving the Care Racing supplied, Cirtek Motorsport-run Ferrari 550 Maranello with Alexey Vasiliev and Nikolay Fomenko, set the car's fastest time of three minutes 53.635s to head all but the Aston Martin DBR9s. A gear selection problem prevented the Frenchman from setting an even faster time, and a light shower of rain towards the end of the day encouraged the team to stop early.

"It was possible to go half a second faster, but already it is a very strong lap time," said Bouchut, who headed the two factory Corvettes in the times. "Last year, in the Ferrari, I lapped in three minutes 54.9s in qualifying, which was good enough for pole position. We are carrying ballast in our car, which the Aston Martin is not. Though we still could not challenge them for fastest time, it would be nice not to have to carry it."

The gear selection problem was fixed for the afternoon session, allowing Fomenko and Vasiliev more time in the car around the daunting 13.6km circuit. "We were faster than we were really expecting," said Cirtek team owner Rob Schirle. "Christophe was more than a second faster than last year despite the ballast we have to carry, and the other two drivers are comfortable with the car.

"We did what we wanted to with the aerodynamic package and we will run in the race gearbox on Thursday, when we will be testing on the Bugatti circuit."

The Le Mans 24-hours will take place on June 18 and 19.

-rar-