The expected start of track activity for the 24 hours of Le Mans It took place this Wednesday, with the first three hours of free practice at the Circuit de La Sarthe. Predictably, one of the Toyota GR010 Hybrid has been in charge of commanding the time table. But the prevailing equality in this season of the Endurance World Cup as a result of the regulatory equalization means that the advantage they enjoy is not as overwhelming as in other editions, at least one lap.
In fact, the time with which Jose Maria ‘Pechito’ Lopez has allowed the # 7 Toyota to lead the session came just half an hour from the end. The 3: 29.309 of the car he shares with Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi surpassed by only 86 thousandths his most serious competitor, the Alpine A480 # 36 by André Negrao, Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviére, driven this time by the Brazilian. In turn, these exceeded by only one thousandth the time registered by Kazuki nakajima in Toyota # 8.
Miguel Molina, the fastest among the pilots of the LMGTE units in the first free practice.
For their part, the two units of Glickenhaus that complete the Hypercar class could only be sixth and seventh without losing 3: 30.2, behind two LMP2: the United Autosports Oreca # 22, with which Phil Hanson stayed one tenth of Pechito’s time, and the Aurus # 26 of G-Drive whose reference was marked by Nyck de Vries, the flaming champion of Formula E. The twin car, the # 25 in which he will compete Roberto Merhi, it could only be 15th absolute and 10th in the LMP2 class in hands, although it ranked as the third best car in the Pro-Am sub-class.
The multi-wing duel for the leadership in LMGTE-Pro was led by Miguel Molina, with a good 3: 50.123 in the Ferrari 488 # 52 of AF Corse with which he left Nick Tandy at 40 thousandths in the Corvette C8.R # 64. The other American unit, the # 63 in which Antonio García competes, was the ninth best among the GTs and the seventh best in LMGTE-Pro. Highlight the great performance of Matteo Cairoli, who led the LMGTE-Am class with the third best overall time among the GTs with a 3: 50.193 at the wheel of the Porsche 911 # 56 of Team Project 1, with all his opponents more than a second away.
Shortly after starting the activity, Marco Sorensen caused a red flag hitting the wall at the exit of the pits in his LMP2, the High Class Oreca # 20. But the final hour proved especially frustrating for two stints of Full Course Yellow, due to mechanical problems with the DragonSpeed # 21 and the JMW Motorsport Ferrari # 66, as well as another red flag. The interruption occurred by an accident in Tertre Rouge between António Félix da Costa, in one of the LMP2 of the JOTA team (# 38) and Antonio Fuoco, in the Ferrari LMGTE-Am # 47 from Cetilar Racing. None appear to have significant damage or problems that would keep them out of the dispute in this afternoon’s first qualifying session.