Toyota looking to stretch fuel advantage over Audi at Le MansBy Gary Watkins Thursday, June 20th 2013, 15:24 GMTToyota WEC Le Mans 2013The Toyota TS030 HYBRIDs could go two laps further between fuel stops than the rival Audi R18 e-tron quattros in this weekend's Le Mans 24 Hours.
The Japanese manufacturer has revealed that it will experiment in qualifying tonight with exploiting the extra three litres of fuel-tank capacity that petrol-powered LMP1 chassis were awarded ahead of Le Mans.
The Toyotas were expected to go one lap further than the Audis on the evidence of the Silverstone and Spa World Endurance Championship rounds before the increase in fuel capacity.
The evaluations are focused on stretching that advantage to two laps with the additional fuel capacity as it strives to compete with the faster Audis in the race.
Toyota Motorsport GmbH technical director Pascal Vasselon said: "Three litres is really worth half a lap.
"Are we able to do one more lap with those three litres? Yes. Are we able to do one more lap and gain something? That is the question.
"We have to calculate what the loss in lap time is in order to do one more lap; we have to calculate what is the threshold of acceptable lap time loss to do this extra lap."
Audi has calculated that should the Toyota go two extra laps, its cars would need to lap 1.5 seconds faster every lap to make up for the time lost in the pits.
It is also expecting the TS030s to be closer to its R18s on race pace than in qualifying.
Toyota has not been surprised by the pace of the Audi, which was more than four seconds faster around the 8.47-mile Circuit de la Sarthe in first qualifying on Wednesday evening.
"We were expecting this; there have been no surprises," said Vasselon. "We are well behind on absolute pace and what we are now trying to do is to achieve a consistent race pace."
Toyota Audi WEC Le Mans 2013Anthony Davidson, who shared the #8 Toyota with Sebastien Buemi and Stephane Sarrazin, stressed that the race was not only about absolute speed.
"The race is not only about lap times; it's not that black and white," he said. "It is also about strategy and fuel consumption."
Toyota has revealed that the driveline failure that afflicted the #8 car in first qualifying on Wednesday night was caused by the failure of first gear.
The team decided that Buemi should park the car rather than risking further damage to the transmission bringing it back to the pits.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/108168
Резултати од првата квалификациска сесија:Pos Cl Drivers Team/Car Time Gap
1. P1 Kristensen/McNish/Duval Audi 3m22.349s
2. P1 di Grassi/Gene/Jarvis Audi 3m24.341s +1.992s
3. P1 Lotterer/Treluyer/Fassler Audi 3m25.474s +3.125s
4. P1 Wurz/Lapierre/Nakajima Toyota 3m26.676s +4.327s
5. P1 Prost/Jani/Heidfeld Rebellion Lola-Toyota 3m30.423s +8.074s
6. P1 Davidson/Buemi/Sarrazin Toyota 3m30.841s +8.492s
7. P1 Belicchi/Beche/Cheng Rebellion Lola-Toyota 3m32.167s +9.818s
8. P1 Kane/Watts/Leventis Strakka HPD 3m36.547s +14.198s
9. P2 Rusinov/M.Martin/Conway Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan 3m39.535s +17.186s
10. P2 Gachnang/Mailleux/Lombard Morand Morgan-Judd 3m40.741s +18.392s
11. P2 Pla/Heinemeier Hansson/Brundle OAK Morgan-Nissan 3m40.780s +18.431s
12. P2 Graves/Nakano/Hamilton Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan 3m40.925s +18.576s
13. P2 Baguette/Gonzalez/Plowman OAK Morgan-Nissan 3m42.387s +20.038s
14. P2 Perez Companc/Minassian/Kaffer Pecom ORECA-Nissan 3m43.420s +21.071s
15. P2 Thiriet/Badey/M.Martin TDS ORECA-Nissan 3m43.494s +21.145s
16. P2 Panciatici/Ragues/Gommendy Signatech ORECA-Nissan 3m43.835s +21.486s
17. P2 Hartley/Patterson/Chandhok Murphy ORECA-Nissan 3m44.538s +22.189s
18. P2 Dolan/Turvey/Luhr Jota Zytek-Nissan 3m44.835s +22.486s
19. P2 Frey/Niederhauser/Bleekemolen Race Perf' ORECA-Judd 3m45.244s +22.895s
20. P2 Imperatori/Tung/Howson KCMG Morgan-Nissan 3m45.500s +23.151s
21. P2 Weeda/Rossiter/Bouchut Lotus-Praga 3m47.920s +25.571s
22. P2 Nicolet/Merlin/Mondolot OAK Morgan-Nissan 3m48.196s +25.847s
23. P2 Tucker/Franchitti/Briscoe Level 5 HPD 3m48.597s +26.248s
24. P2 Giroix/Haezebrouck/Ihara Gulf Lola-Nissan 3m49.096s +26.747s
25. P2 Mardenborough/Ordonez/Krumm Greaves Zytek-Nissan 3m49.421s +27.072s
26. P2 Mowlem/Burgess/Hirschi HVM Status Lola-Judd 3m49.805s +27.456s
27. GTP Bell/Makowiecki/Senna Aston Martin 3m55.658s +33.309s
28. GTP Bruni/Fisichella/Malucelli AF Corse Ferrari 3m55.909s +33.560s
29. GTP Dumbreck/Mucke/Turner Aston Martin 3m56.004s +33.655s
30. GTP Auberlen/Dalla Lana/Lamy Aston Martin 3m56.336s +33.987s
31. GTP Lieb/Lietz/Dumas Manthey Porsche 3m56.457s +34.108s
32. GTP Beretta/Kobayashi/Vilander AF Corse Ferrari 3m56.471s +34.122s
33. GTP Bergmeister/Pilet/Bernhard Manthey Porsche 3m56.573s +34.224s
34. P2 Porta/Raffin/Brandela DKR Lola-Judd 3m56.905s +34.556s
35. P2 Downs/Dagoneau/Younessi Boutsen ORECA-Nissan 3m57.139s +34.790s
36. GTA Nygaard/Poulsen/Simonsen Aston Martin 3m58.661s +36.312s
37. GTA Ried/Roda/Ruberti Proton Porsche 3m59.246s +36.897s
38. GTP Magnussen/Garcia/Taylor Corvette 3m59.526s +37.177s
39. GTP Westbrook/Gavin/Milner Corvette 3m59.860s +37.511s
40. GTA Milesi/Gibon/Henzler Imsa Porsche 4m00.503s +38.154s
41. GTA Hall/Goethe/Campbell-Walter Aston Martin 4m01.035s +38.686s
42. GTA Narac/Bourret/Vernay Imsa Porsche 4m01.713s +39.364s
43. GTA Gerber/Griffin/Cioci AF Ferrari 4m02.815s +40.466s
44. GTP Dalziel/Farnbacher/Goossens SRT Viper 4m03.127s +40.778s
45. GTA Dempsey/Foster/Long Dempsey Porsche 4m03.378s +41.029s
46. GTP Bomarito/Kendall/Wittmer SRT Viper 4m03.461s +41.112s
47. GTA Perazzini/Case/O'Young AF Corse Ferrari 4m03.966s +41.617s
48. GTA MacNeil//Rodrigues/Dumas Larbre Corvette 4m04.512s +42.163s
49. GTA Bornhauser/Canal/Taylor Larbre Corvette 4m04.873s +43.524s
50. GTA Potolicchio/Aguas/Bright 8star Ferrari 4m07.625s +45.276s
51. GTA Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank AF Ferrari 4m09.064s +46.715s
52. GTP Collard/Perrodo/Crubile Prospeed Porsche 4m11.719s +49.370s
53. P2 Gibon/Milesi/Henzler Lotus-Praga
54. P2 Kimber-Smith/Rossi/Lux Greaves Zytek-Nissan
55. GTA Krohn/Jonsson/Mediani Krohn Ferrari
56. GTP Bertolini/Al Faisal/Al Qubaisi JMW Ferrari