The 62 vehicles that will contest the 90th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans have completed the official test of the race this Sunday. A very important test for beginners and a mere calibration for the most experienced drivers and teams at La Sarthe. In this stage, the Argentine ‘Pechito’ López has set the best time of the day with the #7 Toyota after stopping the clock in 3:29.896. The #22 Oreca, the #64 Corvette and the #54 Ferrari have set the pace in LMP2, LMGTE-Pro and LMGTE-Am respectively before the start of the WEC round.
The official test started with a morning session that was left in the hands of ‘Pechito’ López with the #7 Toyota. The Argentine was running in 3:31.626 with 20 minutes to go before the midday break, beating Romain Dumas’ best time in the #708 by a tenth. Third finished the #8 Toyota, while fourth place went to the #709 Glickenhaus in a first contact with La Sarthe in which JOTA’s Oreca #38 set the standard among the LMP2behind that yes of the five hypercar.
Though the Corvette #64 has been the fastest in LMGTE-Pro During the morning, the truth is that the problems of the official Porsche GTEs have marked the development of the session. Michael Christensen’s #92 stalled with driveshaft failure when the second hour of tests began. One hour later, the #91 Porsche had a runway exit at ‘Mulsanne’. Gianmaria Bruno managed to rejoin the track, but she ended up stopping the car at ‘Indianapolis’. As a curious note, Michelle Gatting has been the fastest driver in LMGTE-Am with the #85 Iron Dames Ferrari.
If few conclusions can be drawn from the official test of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, less so from the morning session. In fact, almost all prototypes and GTE improved their times in the afternoon. Nevertheless, nobody ‘remonstrated’ with ‘Pechito’ López who repeated the best time with his definitive 3:29.896. All in all, it was not a completely clean day for the Argentine driver and the #7 Toyota, since the prototype of the Japanese firm caused a red flag in the final stretch of the session. Luckily, the prototype was not damaged in any way.
The order at the end of the day was identical to that of the morning session, despite the improvement in times. The #7 Toyota has commanded ahead of the #708 Glickenhaus and the #8 Toyota. For its part, the #709 of Glickenhaus has finished in fourth place. The Portuguese Filipe Albuquerque was the fastest driver in LMP2 with the Oreca #22 of United Autosports after beating the #38 Oreca of JOTA of António Félix Da Costa. It is curious that both have come to Le Mans after competing in Belle Isle (IMSA) and Jakarta (Formula E). In LMGTE-Pro, he dominated the #64 Corvette again.
Photos: Toyota Gazoo Racing