A positive first day for the AIM Oreca team

Fifth in last year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, the ORECA 01 returned to the Sarthe circuit for the first tests of the 2010 edition. The AIM Team ORECA Matmut and its three drivers took advantage of Wednesday’s practice session and first qualifying session to collect as much data as possible with the race weekend in mind, the start being given at 3 p.m. on Saturday.

Alongside team captain Soheil Ayari, Andy Meyrick discovered the famous Le Mans track. As a rookie, the British driver needed to complete 10 laps as per the sporting regulations. He accomplished this first mission at the start of the practice session completing a second stint as he found his line. As he got out of the car, Andy was happy: “I appreciated my discovery at Le Mans! The Porsche curves are fabulous. Indianapolis is also great, with a little banking. This track is a real challenge! It was a good first test.”

Didier André, who is no stranger to Le Mans, was reunited with the ORECA 01 he drove at the 8 Hours of the Castellet. He also took advantage of these six hours of running time to get back in the swing of things.

During both free practice and qualifying, the AIM Team ORECA Matmut concentrated on the set up of the prototype designed in the Signes workshops. Apart from finding the perfect settings, the objective was to accumulate mileage to record a maximum of data on the tyres, as the ORECA 01 is now equipped with Dunlop rubber.

“The goal of the two sessions was mainly to allow are two new drivers, Didier and Andy, to familiarise themselves with the car on this track,” explains Hugues de Chaunac. “They did this without any problem. At the same time, we need to balance the car for the race. Soheil did a good job: fourth in the petrol-powered cars, behind Aston Martin. By improving its best time by three seconds over last years’, the ORECA 01 has shown the progress completed since after Le Mans 2009.”

Returning from last year, Soheil Ayari posted the 11th fastest time and was satisfied: “We evolved the handling of the car between free practice and qualifying. We are missing a bit of top speed, but the car is easier to drive compared to 12 months ago. Its handling is good. It’s positive for the race.”

The qualifying sessions continue tonight, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., then 10 p.m. to midnight…