24h Le Mans
Test Day ahead of the 24 Hours of Le Mans Centenary this year marked the highly anticipated arrival of new Hypercars fielded by Porsche, Ferrari, Cadillac, Peugeot and Vanwall.
Test Day for the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans was held on Sunday 4 June less than a week before the Centenary. The event saw several new Hypercars hit the circuit for the very first time. In the wake of many months of intensive development, the Ferrari 499P, Porsche 963, Cadillac V-Series.R, Peugeot 9X8 and Vanwall Vandervell 680 wowed the crowd during a total of six hours of track time, the perfect opportunity for teams to begin making necessary adjustments to their cars in preparation for the race.
Ferrari AF Corse topped the timesheet after both Test Day outings. At the morning session, the #50 499P clocked a time of 3:30.686 ahead of Team Peugeot TotalEnergies' #94 Peugeot 9X8 and Hertz Team Jota's #38 Porsche 963. The first session was interrupted when the #93 Peugeot stopped in the Mulsanne Straight with mechanical troubles and when the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid driven by Mike Conway left the track in the Forest Esses.
During the afternoon session, the #51 Ferrari 499P proved faster than the #50. With a time of 03:29.504, Alessandro Pier Guidi/James Calado/Antonio Giovinazzi beat the #6 Porsche 963 by a margin of only 0.1 seconds, and the top 7 all finished within the same second! The excitement for the 24 Hours of Le Mans Centenary less than a week later was at an all-time high.
The Hypercar category classification at the end of 2023 Test Day
1. #51 Ferrari 499P | Ferrari AF Corse | Alessandro Pier Guidi / James Calado / Antonio Giovinazzi – 3:29.504
2. #6 Porsche 963 | Porsche Penske Motorsport | Kévin Estre / André Lotterer / Laurens Vanthoor – 3:29.648
3. #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Mike Conway / Kamui Kobayashi / José María López – 3:29.827
4. #50 Ferrari 499P | Ferrari AF Corse | Antonio Fuoco / Miguel Molina / Nicklas Nielsen – 3:29.856
5. #75 Porsche 963 | Porsche Penske Motorsport | Felipe Nasr / Mathieu Jaminet / Nicholas Tandy – 3:29.905
6. #5 Porsche 963 | Porsche Penske Motorsport | Dane Cameron / Michael Christensen / Frédéric Makowiecki – 3:30.281
7. #93 Peugeot 9X8 | Peugeot TotalEnergies | Paul di Resta / Mikkel Jensen / Jean-Eric Vergne – 3:30.427
8. #2 Cadillac V-Series.R | Cadillac Racing | Earl Bamber / Alex Lynn / Richard Westbrook – 3:30.673
9. #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Sébastien Buemi / Brendon Hartley / Ryo Hirakawa – 3:31.009
10. #94 Peugeot 9X8 | Peugeot TotalEnergies | Loïc Duval / Gustavo Menezes / Nico Müller – 3:31.093
11. #38 Porsche 963 | Hertz Team Jota | António Félix da Costa / Will Stevens / Yifei Ye – 3:31.290
12. #4 Vanwall Vandervell 680 | Floyd Vanwall Racing Team | Tom Dillmann / Esteban Guerrieri / Tristan Vautier – 3:31.453
13. #708 Glickenhaus 007 | Glickenhaus Racing | Romain Dumas / Olivier Pla / Ryan Briscoe – 3:31.711
14. #3 Cadillac V-Series.R | Cadillac Racing | Sébastien Bourdais / Renger Van Der Zande / Scott Dixon – 3:31.821
15. #709 Glickenhaus 007 | Glickenhaus Racing | Franck Mailleux / Nathanaël Berthon / Esteban Gutiérrez – 3:31.878
16. #311 Cadillac V-Series.R | Action Express Racing | Luis Felipe Derani / Alexander Sims / Jack Aitken – 3:33.795
Sunday 4 June: Porsche Penske Motorsport's #6 Porsche 963 and the #51 Ferrari 499P take on the legendary Mulsanne Straight.
The new Hypercars made their debut in competition at the Centenary after clocking the fastest times during Test Day less than a week before the big race.
