Porsche Sprint Challenge

The 71 Porsche Sprint Challenge competitors had the honour of hitting the 24 Hours circuit first today. Soaked by overnight showers, the track was still wet at 09:00, leaving the Porsche 911 and Cayman drivers to dry the racing line for everyone else. The second session proved no easier on a now dry track, with Vincent Isavard's (Berto Moteurs) 911 stopping in the first section of the Mulsanne Straight. A red flag was deployed for quite some time, so only one lap actually went on the books. The Porsche Sprint Challenge field is hoping for a less challenging day on the track tomorrow for qualifying at 08:50 and Race 1 at 13:35.

Ligier European Series

The Ligier European Series hit a still wet track, pitting 39 competitors against each other in two classes. During this first free practice, Dimitri Enjalbert in the #17 Ligier JS P4 briefly took the lead before ceding to Natan Bihel in the #53 Ligier JS P4 thanks to a time of 4:11.991. Simone Riccitelli in the #3 Ligier JS P4 rounded out the top 3 on the heels of a remarkably calm session. Mathieu Martins, 10th overall, finished first in the JS2 R class.

Team's with a second driver sent them out for the second free practice. Gillian Henrion in the #16 Ligier JS P4 and Bihel in the #53 Ligier JS P4 immediately wowed the stopwatch, clocking in under 4:10, four seconds faster than the rest of the field. In the final moments of the session, Enjalbert in the #17 Ligier JS P4 snatched second position from Bihel (third). Thanks to an excellent last lap, Henrion retained the top spot with a time of 4:08.110. Jean-René de Fournoux in the #10 Ligier JS2 R (seven participations in the 24 Hours to his credit) dominated the second class.

Road to Le Mans

At precisely 12:25, the 50 cars entered in the third round of the 2022 Michelin Le Mans Cup got underway. From the start, Lorents Hörr in the #3 Duqueine DKR Engineering car took the helm of the LMP3 grid in 3:47.934. The session was marred with several yellow flags and slow zones, including an incident for Kessel Racing's Ferrari. As a result of the string of interruptions, competitors did not have an opportunity to improve their times. Malthe Jakobsen in Cool Racing's #69 Ligier and Wayne Boyd in United Autosports' #23 Ligier finished second and third. The H24 finished 49th.

It was the same scenario in GT3, with an excellent time clocked right away by the leader, Valentin Hasse-Clot in Aston Martin Bullitt Racing's #99, followed by GMB Motorsport's #55 and #88 Hondas.

During the second session in early evening, lap times fell, with the #43 Ligier JS P320-Nissan coming in at 3:46.411, most likely due to the cooler track temp. Though that time was the one to beat for most of the session, Tom Dillman clocked a 3:45.406 lap just two minutes from the end, clinching the top spot at the wheel of the #10 Ligier JS P320-Nissan. The #99 Aston Martin had once again made itself known, however, by the close of the session at 21:30.