Four hours of practice completed successfully

At the end of the first four hours of practice for the 80^th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, all 56 cars have taken to the track in preparation for the race which begins at 1500 hrs this Saturday, 16^th June.

Audi Sport Team Joest’s No. 1 R18 e-tron quattro headed an impressive 1-2-3-4 showing from the German marque, with the two diesel-powered hybrid cars just ahead of the two R18 ultras.  2011 winner André Lotterer set the fastest time of 3:25.163 – more than half a second faster than last year’s pole position time which looks sure to be bettered in 2012.  Toyota’s two TS030 Hybrids were in 5^th and 6^th positions, despite the No. 8 car suffering from a drive train malady which caused it to stop on track and subsequently necessitate an engine change.

Quickest of the privateer ‘petrol’ cars was the No.21 Strakka Racing HPD ARX-03a Honda in the hands of Danny Watts.  His time of 3.31.651 was over two and a half seconds ahead of the No.17 Pescarolo Dome Judd, the No.12 Rebellion Racing Lola-Toyota and the No.22 JRM HPDARX-03a.

In LMP2 it was the No.44 Starworks Motorsport HPD ARX-03b which topped the time sheets at the end of the practice, Tom Kimber-Smith having set a quickest time of 3:39.669.  The American team headed the British No.38 Jota Zytek Nissan and the No.48 Murphy Prototypes Oreca 03-Nissan.

GTE-Pro was as tightly contested as expected, with the No. 97 Aston Martin Racing Vantage V8 of Darren Turner just edging a Luxury Ferrari-Corvette-AF Corse Ferrari sandwich which was separated by just three tenths of a second.  His quickest time was 3:57.036. The only major incident to befall any of the competitors this afternoon/evening was an accident in the Porsche Curves for the No.51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia in the hands of Giancarlo Fisichella and the car looks as though it will miss tonight’s qualifying session while repairs are being made.

In the GTE-Am category there was also considerable competition amongst the manufacturers and it was the No.79 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 RSR which headed the No.99 Aston Martin Racing Vantage V8 and the No.50 Larbre Competition Corvette C6.R, last year’s class winners.

The unclassified No.0 Nissan DeltaWing ran extremely competitively during the session and ended with a time of 3:43.576, set by Michael Krumm – firmly amongst the LMP2 runners.

The next session will begin at 2200 hrs and will be a two-hour qualifying session.  Expect times to tumble!

Photo: CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES (LE MANS, SARTHE), 24 HOURS OF LE MANS, PRACTICE, 13TH JUNE 2012.  The No.1 Audi Sport Team Joest R18 e-tron quattro headed the time sheets.