Ferrari and Lamborghini were both represented as the teams took to the famous French track last Sunday for a test day ahead of the Le Mans 24 Hours which takes place in ten days time. This pre-event test session on the La Sarthe circuit allowed the teams planning to compete in the legendary endurance race this year to acclimatise themselves with the circuit and fulfil certain requirements, including allowing new drivers to complete the mandatory number of laps required to let them start the 'big' race.

In the LM GT1 class the venerable Prodrive built Ferrari 550 Maranello and Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT will both be represented, while in LM GT2 the exciting new Ferrari F430GT will be bidding for outright honours. Both classes are expected to be hard-fought and have attracted a swage of top-class entries.

The Prodrive-developed and built Ferrari 550 Maranello and the Reiter Engineering-built Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT will both be in the thick of the action in LM GT1 although they, along with the singleton Saleen S7-R entry, are little more than a long shot for victory with outright class honours expected to be closely fought out between the factory-entered Aston Martin DBR9 and Chevrolet Corvette C6-R entries, both brands which will be ably backed up by fast private entries. The Ferrari 550 Maranello will be represented by Larbre Competition, the Cirtek-run Russian Age Racing and the Menx-Convers team, in what may prove to be its last Le Mans outing. The Prodrive-run car scored an historic win in this race in 2003, but is nearing the end of its life now although the hugely experienced Larbre Competition outfit can be expected to run very quickly throughout the race and be ready to capitalise on any severe attrition rate at the front. The car's crew will be led by reigning FIA GT Champion Gabriele Gardel who will be making his Le Mans debut alongside Austrian Patrick Bornhauser and Frenchman Jean-Luc Blanchemain. All three pilots can count on a lot of sportscar experience over the years. The Menx-Convers team can also draw on plenty of winning sportscar knowledge with Robert Pergl (Czech,) Peter Kox (Dutch) and Alexi Vasiliev (Russia) slated to drive the Russian entry while the Russian Age Racing entry has an all-British crew made up of Christian Vann, Nigel Smith and Tim Sugden.

The on-track action for the 2006 Le Mans 24 Hours began last Sunday with the traditional pre-race test day with cars from all the classes LMP1, LMP2, LM GT1 and LM GT2, all involved in the track action. Two test sessions were held, the first from 09:00-13:00 and the second from 14:00-18:00. During the sessions in the LM GT 1 class the Menx-Convers Ferrari 550 Maranello entry was slightly faster than the Larbre Competition example, although both teams were treating the sessions mainly as an opportunity to 'bed in' the car and drivers. The Menx car's best lap of 3:55.316 was just under four seconds off the fastest LM GT1 time set by the Aston Martin DBR9 and good for 7th in class while the Larbre 550 was 9th in the hands of Gardel who set a best lap of 3:58.563, although he spun off late on whilst trying to improve his time.
 

The Team JLOC (Japanese Lamborghini Owners' Club) run Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT driven by Italian Marco Apicella, and Japanese Koji Yamanashi and Yasutaka Hinoi was 11th in the LM GT1 class with a best lap of 3:59.108. The first two named drivers of the Murciélago R-GT actually drove the car to its historic first racing win earlier this year when they swept to a dominant GT300 class victory in the opening round of the Japanese Super GT Series. All three of these Italian LM GT1 entries ended up in the gravel traps at some point during the day with the Menx-Convers entry having its afternoon cut short by its excursion. The Russian Age Racing 550 Maranello was 12th in class with a time of 4:04.706 set by Christian Vann.

In the LM GT2 at Le Mans this year class Ferrari will be represented by a single F430GT run by Scuderia Ecosse, as Team Icer Brakes have been forced to withdraw their own entry after suffering major damage to the new car during the recent LMS Spa 1,000 kms. The Scottish team now have to be considered as one of the favourites for LM GT2 class victory providing recent reliability issues can be addressed, especially as the car is facing its first ever 24 Hour race. The new F430GT has proved to be a special racing car as so far this year: it has been blisteringly quick in the American Le Mans Series were it is being campaigned by the front-running Risi Competizione outfit and it has also taken a string of important class victories in the premier European sportscar races.

Scuderia Ecosse, who are already sweeping the British GT Championship before them this year, completed a full test programme at Le Mans last Sunday and ended the day at the top of the LM GT2 timesheets with Andrew Kirkaldy’s lap of 4:04.252. The first job though for Scuderia Ecosse during test sessions was for Chris Niarchos to complete 10 laps in order to qualify to drive at Le Mans. The Greek/Canadian was uncharacteristically quiet before his run as he contemplated the daunting morning ahead of him. This will be Chris’ first time at Le Mans.

“I definitely had butterflies before my first run," said Niarchos. "Le Mans comes with such a massive reputation that it’s hard not to feel a little nervous. Once I was out there though it was awesome, what a place! It’s a tough track as there are very few markers, its all guardrails and trees, but I enjoyed every second of it. The key thing for me is getting used to working out the speed of the prototypes as they come at you from nowhere but I learn more each lap and I can’t wait for the race!”

His team mates were also upbeat: “The car feels really good and is very well balanced, whatever the fuel level. We weren’t sure where we were on pace compared to the Porsches so we put in a quick lap, not an all-out qualifying lap, but a quick one, and we were pleased to find ourselves on top. Let’s hope we carry on like this,” said Andrew Kirkaldy while third driver Tim Mullen commented: "The car feels fast, it’s good to drive and it’s consistent so if it stays that way I’ll be a very happy man! It’s the ideal car for a 24 hour race and I am thoroughly enjoying driving it here!”

Stewart Roden, Scuderia Ecosse's Team Principal added on Sunday: “We’re happy to be fastest today! We ran through a structured test programme with Michelin and we’re extremely pleased with the results so far. This is just the beginning though, there is a long way to go yet.”

With the test day now completed the next appearance for the teams taking part in the 2006 Le Mans 24 Hours will be for Scrutineering which takes place next Tuesday (12th June) before qualifying begins the day after on (Wednesday 13th.)