Toyota goes to rest, obtaining the record at the end of Free Practice 2 of the 24h of Le Mans, held with the sun setting on the Circuit de la Sarthe, leaving room for the darkness of the night.
In the 120′ everyone obviously took advantage of the conditions which will be similar to the first part of the race to test their respective solutions, between tire consumption in decidedly lower temperatures and various consumption.
The fact is that in the HYPERCAR Class it is Sébastien Buemi who puts everyone in line with the GR010 Hybrid #8 in 3’27″474, trimming half a second from the Ferrari #83 of AF Corse which with Robert Kubica is also the fastest in the reserved category to private teams.
The third time goes to the Porsche #6 of Team Penske, by just a few hundredths behind the Pole, while fourth goes to Jota’s 963 #12 which, however, Callum Ilott literally demolished at the end, going off the track in the ‘Esses’ after the Dunlop Bridge, causing the red flag.
A competitive Alpine #36 confirms itself in the Top5, while its sister car #35 is seventh. Between the two A424s we find the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac #3 with a clear 1″ gap from the record.
The official Ferraris instead occupy eighth and eleventh place with the #51 and #50 respectively, interspersed with the #7 Toyota and the #5 Porsche.
This time the BMWs fall behind, stopping 15th and 18th, both ahead of the two Peugeots. However, Dries Vanthoor crashed his M Hybrid V8 #15 at ‘Indianapolis’, still managing to bring it back to the pits with about twenty minutes left to go.
Lamborghinis are always at the bottom of the ranking, as is the Isotta Fraschini.
#83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman, Yifei Ye
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
In the LMP2 Class, after an excellent performance in Qualifying, Malthe Jakobsen kept the Oreca #37 of Cool Racing in the lead in 3’35″386, soundly beating all his rivals.
The first of these is the United Autosports #22 at 1″1, just ahead of the Panis Racing #65 which is the first of the PRO/AM, keeping behind its direct rivals Duqueine #30 and AF Corse #183, the latter a couple of seconds from the top.
Similar gaps also for Inter Europol Competition #34 and APR #35 who are sixth and seventh, completing the Top10 Proton Competition #9, APR #25 and Idec Sport #28, while the ‘Spike’ of AO by TF #14 finished in wall, finishing their work prematurely.
#24 Nielsen Racing Oreca 07: Gibson: Fabio Scherer, David Heinemeier Hansson, Kyffin Simpson
Photo credit: Rainier Ehrhardt
In LMGT3 there is still a Ford in front of everyone: this time it is the Mustang #88 of Proton Competition, which has Dennis Olsen to thank for his 3’58″689, a time just a few hundredths better than that of the Aston Martin #777 of D’Station Racing .
The BMW #31 of WRT and the Corvette #82 of TF Sport are also very close to the leaders, while the BMW #46 on which Valentino Rossi put together 11 laps is also seen in the Top5, stopping 0″9 from the best time achieved by Maxime Martin for his crew.
The Lamborghini #60 is in the Top5, half a second from the top, followed closely by the McLaren #70 of Inception Racing, then there is the Mustang #88 of Proton which takes eighth place, beating the Porsche #91 of Manthey EMA and the Iron Dames Lamborghini #85.
The best Ferrari is the 296 #155 of Spirit of Race which from eleventh goes slightly better than the #54 of AF Corse, 13th.
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