The wet weather for the opening day of the 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship provided French tyre manufacturer Michelin with the perfect opportunity to evaluate its range of rubber.
Manager of four-wheel motor sport at Michelin Serge Grisin explained the day “Today’s conditions were very complex. They were so changeable that tyre choice was far more complicated than expected.
“Along with our partners, however, we took advantage of the situation to measure the performance differences between our different wet weather tyres in completely wet and merely damp conditions. Given the weather that is being predicted for Sunday, it was good preparation for the race.”
With Michelin providing the entire LMP1class with tyres the teams led the way on ‘Wets’ rather than ‘Full Wets’ before switching to the Michelin Hybrid tyre which is an ‘Intermediate Slicks’ providing grip on a damp track teamed with the performance of a slick tyre. Toyota completed several laps on the tyre while both Audi and Rebellion completed one flying lap of evaluation.
In the GTE Pro class the teams run both ‘Wet’ and ‘Full Wets’ while the GTE AM class had the option of ‘Wet’s and the patterened ‘Intermediate’.
