Porsche’s Michael Christensen has said that because the prototypes cars are slower at Le Mans this year, he expects less issues with traffic management for the GTE cars due to the prototypes slower on-track speeds.
Speaking to MotorsportWeek.com at Le Mans, the Porsche GT driver, teamed with Neel Jani and Kevin Estre in the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19, said:
“We’ll see. So far on the test day, traffic was actually better than ever. I think reason being we don’t see other cars so often as we usually do, because both prototype classes are slower this year. So there’s less chances of having an issue.”
With the fastest Hypercar laptime in yesterday’s qualifying session coming in at 3:26.279, courtesy of Kamui Kobayashi in the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, that’s over 9 seconds a lap slower than last year in qualifying for the LMP1 cars, which the Hypercars have replaced for 2021.
For LMP2, meanwhile, it’s a similar story, although the time gap is smaller. In yesterday’s qualifying, the fastest lap was set by Antonio Felix Da Costa in the #38 JOTA ORECA 07-Gibson, a 3:28.807. In 2020 in the same session, Nyck de Vries in the #29 Racing Team Nederland ORECA 07-Gibson went over two seconds quicker, with a 3:26.648.
However, GTE drivers will still have the issue of being passed by the quicker prototypes. This could be harder since the prototypes will be passing in different areas compared to previous years – but Christensen says this shouldn’t be a problem.
“Of course, you will have a car coming in on a slower pace, but that also gives us time to anticipate. So traffic management will be different this year, but that’s my prediction,” said the 30-year-old Danish driver.
Christensen’s comments echo words spoken by Toyota’s Mike Conway earlier in the week, who said something similar about Toyota’s traffic management during the race.
Jani adapting to GTE car very well
Christensen is racing in a different line-up at Le Mans compared to previous years. Previously, he and Kevin Estre were the full-season pairing joined by Laurens Vanthoor.
Instead, Christenen is now the third man in the line-up, with Jani joining Estre for the full season.
The Swiss driver has won the race overall previously, but all of his previous appearances at Le Mans have all been behind the wheel of a prototype.
Despite that, Christensen has praised his team-mate for the rate he has gotten up to speed with Porsche’s GTE challenger at Le Mans.
“It’s great,” he said. “Neil is doing a great job to adapt to the car first of all, but also traffic is a different thing. We just had the test day and we’ll have some night practice as well to come.
“But no, he’s doing a good job. At the moment we have no issue. He is fast and hopefully we can continue to fine tune the car and go in the same direction, all of us.”
