24h Le Mans
Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA claimed their second session in a row with the #38 car sealing top spot in FP1 before the sister car - the #12 scooped top-spot ahead of BMW, Ferrari and Porsche - while the biggest shock of the night was the early exit of the experienced #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing crew.
1. Cadillac V-Series.R #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA – Will Stevens / Norman Nato / Alex Lynn – 03.22.847
2. BMW M Hybrid V8 #15 BMW M Team WRT – Dries Vanthoor / Raffaele Marciello / Kevin Magnussen – 03.22.887
3. Ferrari 499P #51 Ferrari-AF Corse – Alessandro Pier Guidi / James Calado / Antonio Giovinazzi – 03.23.163
4. Cadillac V-Series.R #38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA – Earl Bamber / Sébastien Bourdais / Jenson Button – 03.23.467
5. Ferrari 499P #50 Ferrari-AF Corse – Antonio Fuoco / Nicklas Nielsen / Miguel Molina – 03.23.514
6. Porsche 963 #5 Porsche Penske Motorsport – Julien Andlauer / Michael Christensen / Mathieu Jaminet – 03.23.544
7. BMW M Hybrid V8 #20 BMW M Team WRT – Rene Rast / Robin Frijns / Sheldon van der Linde – 03.23.805
8. Cadillac V-Series.R #311 Cadillac Whelen – Jack Aitken / Felipe Drugovich / Frederik Vesti – 03.23.890
9. Alpine A424 #36 Alpine Endurance Team – Mick Schumacher / Frédéric Makowiecki / Jules Gounon – 03.23.945
10. Toyota GR010 Hybrid #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing – Sébastien Buemi / Brendon Hartley / Ryo Hirakawa – 03.23.988
11. Ferrari 499P #83 AF Corse – Robert Kubica / Yifei Ye / Philip Hanson – 03.23.994
12. Cadillac V-Series.R #101 Cadillac WTR – Ricky Taylor / Jordan Taylor / Filipe Albuquerque – 03.24.030
13. Porsche 963 #4 Porsche Penske Motorsport – Felipe Nasr / Nick Tandy / Pascal Wehrlein – 03.24.584
14. Alpine A424 #35 Alpine Endurance Team – Paul-Loup Chatin / Ferdinand Habsburg / Charles Milesi – 03.24.667
15. Aston Martin Valkyrie #009 Aston Martin THOR Team – Alex Riberas / Marco Sørensen / Roman De Angelis
1. Oreca 07-Gibson #14 AO by TF – PJ Hyett / Dane Cameron / Louis Deletraz (LMP2 Pro/Am) – 03.35.472
2. Oreca 07-Gibson #23 United Autosports – Daniel Schneider / Oliver Jarvis / Benjamin Hanley (LMP2 Pro/Am) – 03.35.657
3. Oreca 07-Gibson #45 Algarve Pro Racing – George Kurtz / Nicky Catsburg / Alexander Quinn (LMP2 Pro/Am) – 03.35.954
4. Oreca 07-Gibson #29 TDS Racing – Rodrigo Sales / Mathias Beche / Clément Novalak (LMP2 Pro/Am) – 03.36.163
5. Oreca 07-Gibson #22 United Autosports – Renger Van Der Zande / Pietro Fittipaldi / David Heinemeier Hansson – 03.36.536
6. Oreca 07-Gibson #48 Panis Racing – Oliver Gray / Esteban Masson / Franck Perera – 03.36.588
7. Oreca 07-Gibson #25 Algarve Pro Racing – Matthias Kaiser / Lorenzo Fluxa / Théo Pourchaire – 03.36.612
8. Oreca 07-Gibson #43 Inter Europol Competition – Jakub Smiechowski / Tom Dillmann / Nick Yelloly – 03.36.958
9. Oreca 07-Gibson #28 IDEC Sport – Paul Lafargue / Job Van Uitert / Sebastian Alvarez – 03.37.004
10. Oreca 07-Gibson #16 RLR M Sport – Michael Jensen / Ryan Cullen / Patrick Pilet (LMP2 Pro/Am) – 03.37.119
11. Oreca 07-Gibson #183 AF Corse – François Perrodo / Matthieu Vaxiviere / Antonio Felix Da Costa (LMP2 Pro/Am) – 03.37.394
12. Oreca 07-Gibson #37 Cool Racing – Aliaksandr Malykhin / Tom Blomqvist / Tristan Vautier – 03.37.652
1. BMW M4 LMGT3 #46 Team WRT – Ahmad Al Harthy / Valentino Rossi / Kelvin Van Der Linde – 03.56.875
2. Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 #27 Heart Of Racing – Ian James / Mattia Drudi / Zacharie Robichon – 03.57.083
3. Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3 #92 Manthey 1ST Phorm – Ryan Hardwick / Riccardo Pera / Richard Lietz – 03.57.255
4. Lexus RC F LMGT3 #78 Akkodis ASP Team – Arnold Robin / Jack Hawksworth / Finn Gehrsitz – 03.57.321
5. Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R #81 TF Sport – Tom Van Rompuy / Rui Andrade / Charlie Eastwood – 03.57.690
6. Ford Mustang LMGT3 #88 Proton Competition – Stefano Gattuso / Giammarco Levorato / Dennis Olsen – 03.57.827
7. Ferrari 296 LMGT3 #196 Ziggo Sport Tempesta – Jonathan Hui / Christopher Froggatt / Edward Cheever – 03.57.960
8. McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo #59 United Autosports – James Cottingham / Grégoire Saucy / Sébastien Baud – 03.58.106
9. Ferrari 296 LMGT3 #21 Vista AF Corse – François Heriau / Simon Mann / Alessio Rovera – 03.58.116
10. Ferrari 296 LMGT3 #54 Vista AF Corse – Thomas Flohr / Francesco Castellacci / Davide Rigon – 03.58.632
11. Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 #61 Iron Lynx – Martin Berry / Lin Hodenius / Maxime Martin – 03.58.732
12. McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo #95 United Autosports – Darren Leung / Sean Gelael / Marino Sato – 03.58.977
A tantalising prospect as the sun slowly began to set at Le Mans. The 21 Hypercars were unleashed onto Circuit de la Sarthe in their lightest, most aggressive trim - with the sole objective of reaching the Hyperpole knockouts tomorrow evening.
Setting the first representative time and impressive out of the box was Robin Frijns in the #20 BMW M Team WRT M Hybrid V8 - a whisker away from last years Hyperpole time on his first flying lap. The Flying Dutchman had the BMW on rails and that time opened the floodgates with Alpine, Ferrari, Porsche, BMW and Cadillac all following suit - each flexing their muscles on the race to the top of the timing tree.
Chinese driver Yifei Yi lit-up the proceedings further - the #83 AF Corse star was the first to dip under the 03:24 mark with a 03:23.994 on his second lap. Alessandro Pier Guidi sliced six hundredths to leapfrog Yi in the works #51 Ferrari AF Corse machine before Jack Aitken in the #311 Cadillac went quicker in the 03:23 club.
With five minutes left tensions were high - a mistake from Paul-Loup Chatin resulted in an off-road excursion in the #35 Alpine A424, while Dries Vanthoor grabbed the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 by the scruff of its neck to be the first to smash the 03:23 mark with a 03:22.887. Just seconds later Alex Lynn pushed the #12 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac to the limit and to the front of the queue with a 03:22.847 to take the second session in a row for the American brand.
One of the biggest stories from the session was the #7 Toyota GR010 - Hybrid, only managing 17th. With only the top 15 proceeding to the next round of knockouts - the Japanese team will put all their effort behind the #8 crew tomorrow. Bowing out with the Toyota was the #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie, the #99 Proton Competition Porsche and sadly for French fans both #93 and #94 Peugeot 9X8s.
Kicking the evening off in the scorching sunshine, the Goodyear-shod LMP2 and LMGT3 classes took to the track to qualify for the knock-out and Hyperpole sessions. Bronze drivers took to the wheel in LMGT3, while the most experienced drivers in LMP2 cars spearheaded their teams efforts.
An incident filled qualifying session shortened the 30 minutes on the original clock to two short, sharp sessions.The Iron Lynx bad luck was to continue from FP1 as the #60 Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 came to a premature stop on the run up to the Dunlop chicane.
What was meant to be a 30 minute session turned into a short, sharp 15 minute blast. Louis Deletraz turned on the afterburners aboard Spike the Dragon - putting the #199 AO by TF ORECA LMP2 top the standings by 0.185 from the #23 United Autosports car in second and #45 Algarve Pro Racing in third.
Eight different marques of cars took the top eight fastest times in LMGT3 - showing the tight competition between the manufacturers. The Bavarian BMW carrying the famous #46 sealed the top spot with Ahmad Al Harthy booking the teams place in Hyperpole knckouts tomorrow, handing over to Valentino Rossi.
Two of the casualties in LMP2 consisted of previous outright winner Andre Lotterer in the #18 IDEC Sport car as well as 2023 LMP2 class winners Inter Europol Competition. Meanwhile, in the GT class - the dominant #87 Lexus from Sunday failed to make it into the top 12 along with the #85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3 R.
