24h Le Mans
Test Day was the dress rehearsal for the 62-car 24 Hours of Le Mans field before free practice 1 on Wednesday and Hyperpole on Thursday. We’ve crunched the numbers to give you the low down.
Brendon Hartley, driver of the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, topped the rankings on Test Day for the 93rd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The New-Zealander set the day’s best lap time in the afternoon session, bettering James Calado (3:26.777) in the #51 Ferrari 499P and Mick Schumacher (3:27.313) in the #36 Alpine A424. The Hypercar Test Day times are improving year on year. Antonio Giovinazzi set 3:29.504 in 2023 in the Ferrari AF Corse #51 Ferrari 499P and last year Kévin Estre registered 3:26.907 with the Porsche Penske Motorsport #6 Porsche 963.
But this year Toyota have snatched the number one spot from Porsche. The Japanese team is making gradual progress with their Hypercar. Last year, Brendon Hartley’s best lap was 3:27.615 (#8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid). Yesterday was a 1.3-second improvement! Its GT-One livery may be a nod to the past, but the #7 Toyota is moving forwards. It ran faster than last year too, with Nyck de Vries’ 3:28.385 beating Kamui Kobayashi’s 2024 performance (3:28.467).
Ferrari have also improved. Miguel Molina set 3'28”014 last year, which James Calado bettered by 1.2 seconds yesterday.
BMW is also on the “improved” list Robin Frijns shaved off five tenths of a second, taking his car from 3:28.072 to 3:27.554. The improvement goes unnoticed in a year-on-year comparison of Test Day rankings, where the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 slides down to eighth place from sixth. This year the Ferrari’s are out in force and Alpine is making great strides. Nicolas Lapierre’s 3:29.620 put the car in 17th place in 2024 but yesterday Mick Schumacher nailed 3:27.313, which put him on the podium. That’s a three-second improvement for the German driver! The French make has made the most progress compared to last year’s Test Day.
Cadillac’s advancement was less spectacular, with 3:27.620 for Alex Lynn in the Cadillac Hertz Team Jota #13 V-Series.R, putting him in ninth place. The other Cadillacs ranked 16th and 17th. Last year, the American car’s best lap time was 3:29.360. As most competitors have improved, each team’s progress is perhaps less evident.
Only Peugeot and Porsche had a slower Test Day than last year’s. Jean-Eric Vergne looks to be Peugeot’s fastest driver, judging by his best lap time: 3:29.386 – not far off Paul Di Resta’s 3:29.326 in 2024. Kévin Estre didn’t top the tables this year but remains the fastest driver in the Porsche camp with 3:27.56 (compared to 3:26.907 in 2024). The three factory 963s were in the top 4 last year but ranked 5th, 6th and 11th yesterday.
The Aston Martin Valkyries had an admirable first outing at Le Mans with 3:29.249 for Tom Gamble in the #007 and 3:29.418 for Marco Sørensen in the sister car. Whatever the pace, the sound of the V12 engine is music to many ears!
All the Hypercars achieved the unofficial lap time of 3.30. However, not all drivers managed to match it. Twelve drivers have yet to record a sub 3.30 lap, while 53 drivers can claim to have done so. The remainder did not record a timed lap.
The fastest LMP2 was the #22 Oreca 07 entered by United Autosports. Pietro Fittipaldi set the time of 3:35.770. Mathias Beche in the TDS Racing #28 was almost half a second slower, and Louis Delétraz (#199 AO by TF) added seven tenths. The #22 also went fastest at last year’s Test Day, in the hands of Oliver Jarvis (3:34.704).
Five, yes five, of the six Lexus drivers are in the top 10 in LMGT3. José María López was fastest with 3:55.276 – an outstanding performance compared to the rest of the class and to last year (when the class was introduced). Alessio Rovera in the #21 296 LMGT3 sliced 1.5 seconds off the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans winner. Last year’s time (3:59.883 Sébastien Baud, Corvette) has been well and truly smashed! However, Benjamin Barker’s overall class record still stands. He set a best lap time of 3:55.263 in the Proton Competition #77 Ford Mustang in last year’s qualifying session.
With Toyota heading the Hypercar class and Lexus the LMGT3 class, it’s smiles all round at Toyota group.
The Toyota GR010 Hybrid may have been the fastest this Sunday, but it didn’t cover the most ground. It clocked up 71 laps in the six hours of practice time (give or take interruptions), as did the #311 Cadillac V-Series.R and the Gibson Algarve Pro Racing #25 Oreca 07. The Team WRT #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 banked the most track time, completing 74 laps. The Kessel Racing #57 Ferrari 296 LMGT3 covered 69 laps, two more than the Vista AF Corse #21 and #54. The Inter Europol Competition #34 LMP2 only managed 40 laps. Luca Ghiotti crashed out between the Porsche Curves and the Karting early in the day, which meant time in the garage to repair the damage.
With four 963s on track – three of them factory-entered – Porsche is the manufacturer who bagged the most laps. 254 to be precise. Cadillac totalled 253 thanks to the #311, #12, #38 and #101. Aston Martin clocked the least mileage with 125 laps.
Nicolás Varrone and Frederik Vesti both hit the 344.5 kph mark. The drivers of the #99 Porsche 963 and #311 Cadillac V-Series.R are among the eight drivers to have topped 340 kph. Malte Jakobsen was almost there, with 339.1 kph in the #94 9X8. Tom Gamble in the #007 Valkyrie has more to make up (334.9 kph).
Track temperature was markedly different between the two sessions. It got gradually warmer as the morning progressed reaching 22°C by the end of session 1. The afternoon session opened with 33°C, rising to 39°C mid-session and then dropping back to 34°C by the evening. Conditions were very similar to last year’s Test Day.
Test Day is always a dilemma. Do you flex your muscles and show your pace, or keep your hand to your chest until race day? Teams often opt to keep their form a secret until later in the week. However, the charts are still an indication of how teams are doing. What should we expect next weekend? Stiff competition in all classes. There is little to choose between the eight Hypercar makes and any race incident would set the cat among the pigeons. In LMP2, the uniform grid makes predictions difficult. All the teams are potential winners! And in LMGT3, Lexus looks to have a car suited to La Sarthe, but has yet to win at Le Mans. For all teams, the podium is still a long way off.
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