Le Mans 2011 - Ayse's Story - Page 4 - Wednesday
First Qualifying Session - The Night at Arnage
We had plenty of time and arrived quite a while before the session was due to start, parking up in the nearby car park and settled down to our first 'sandwich americaine' of the week - a baguette stuffed with frites and (for me) two merguez and lashings of mustard - lovely!
There had been a suggestion made (by someone, somewhere!) that the view from Indianapolis back towards Mulsanne had been improved since last year but having got down there after our lunch/tea/supper we found that it remained unchanged from previous years. There is practically no view back at all for the spectators as the cars arrive at the first left-hander. It was disappointing as well that the large TV screen was still to be installed, but, with the aid of Radio Le Mans, we settled down to enjoy the first qualifying session.
As most people know by now, I adore the night at Le Mans and the beauty of being at Le Mans for all the practice sessions is that I get to see the cars running in the darkness three times instead of just once during the race. It also means I get extra opportunities to prove my abject incompetence at photographing the cars at night! I guess I should realise by now that it's really to hard to take anything like decent pictures from where I shoot and with the equipment I use - but I just can't resist trying!
It turned out to be largely dominated by Audi, although they were eventually pipped to the 'overnight pole' post by Sarazin's #8 Peugeot. But there was clearly a lot more to come in tomorrow's two qualifying sessions.
So the first on-track action of Le Mans 2011 was over and we had six solid hours under our belts already. It was now a case of getting back to the car for an easy trip back to the hotel, finally hitting the sack just after 1 am.
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