The 24h of Le Mans officially opens on Sunday with the day of testing in which the 62 cars welcomed for the 92nd edition of the race which will be held on 15-16 June will take part.
In addition to the 37 protagonists of the FIA World Endurance Championship, on the Circuit de la Sarthe we will also see in action the guests of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, which for the French stage of the World Endurance Championship has reintroduced the LMP2s to the grid, together with the HYPERCAR and LMGT3 .
Of the 186 registered drivers, on Sunday 9 June not all will be able to board their cars, but the teams by regulation will have the possibility of fielding up to 5 drivers also taking advantage of the reserves.
For example, it is known that both Scott Dixon and Alex Palou will only arrive at Cadillac Racing next week, as they are busy at Road America for the IndyCar race. For this reason, on V-Series.R #2 the owners Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn will share the V-Series.R with Tristan Vautier, hired by Chip Ganassi Racing as a reserve and therefore ready to take over from Dixon.
The Frenchman will also be able to lend a hand to the crew of #3, Sébastien Bourdais and Renger Van Der Zande, not having Palou at their side.
As for Action Express Racing’s V-Series.R #311, Jack Aitken’s name is there, although the Briton is actually racing with the DTM in Zandvoort and it will be necessary to see if he will have the opportunity to go back and forth from Holland, or he will leave Pipo Derani and Felipe Drugovich alone.
#311 Whelen Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R
Photo credit: Rainier Ehrhardt
Porsche had already confirmed Dane Cameron as ‘bench driver’, in fact he appears in the list as the fourth competitor of the official 963 managed by Team Penske.
Toyota will use the opportunity to have Ritomo Miyata ride in the GR010 Hypercar (with the Japanese driver still signed up to race with Cool Racing’s Oreca #37), while Nick Yelloly and Jesse Krohn will arrive in BMW from the IMSA crews to lend a hand to the owners of the M Hybrid V8s prepared by Team WRT.
At Alpine there is Jules Gounon ready to get on the A424 #35, already driven in the 6 hours of Imola and Spa-Francorchamps to replace the injured Ferdinand Habsburg.
Lamborghini doubles its SC63s also bringing the IMSA trio of Caldarelli/Cairoli/Grosjean. With the Swiss due to race in IndyCar, here is a good opportunity for Jordan Pepper to try his hand at the wheel of the LMDh developed by Iron Lynx.
Mirko Bortolotti instead chose to shuttle between Zandvoort and Le Mans to divide tasks in the DTM with the SSR Performance Lamborghini and in the WEC with his Mortara/Kvyat teammates.
Finally, Peugeot will give space to Malthe Jakobsen to put together precious kilometers with the 9X8; the Dane is also teaming up with Miyata in LMP2.
The coincidence with IndyCar will also deprive Nolan Siegel (United Autosports) and Kyffin Simpson (Nielsen Racing) of the tests, whose respective teams will rely on their crewmates with no replacements included in the list at the moment.
#30 Duqueine Team Oreca 07 – Gibson
Photo credit: Rainier Ehrhardt
There are no additional names regarding the LMGT3 Class cars, while among the reserves Proton Competition remains on the list for the Hypercar Class with its Porsche 963 #79 (and Gimmi Bruni indicated as driver), and Inter’s Oreca LMP2 Europol Competition #43 and Staysail Motorsport #41.
The test day on Sunday includes a first session from 10am to 1pm and a second in the afternoon from 3.30pm to 6.30pm.
We remind you that the drivers who will not be able to take part will have to put together at least 5 laps during Free Practice 1 scheduled for Wednesday afternoon to get the final OK.
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