Brendon Hartley was the fastest driver in the first practice session for the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans, driving the Toyota GR010 Hybrid #8. He set a lap time of 3:26.013, placing himself at the top of the timing table. Callum Ilott was the second fastest driver, driving the JOTA #12 Porsche 963. He was nearly six tenths slower than Hartley. Ilott set his lap time early in the session and held the fastest time until the last half hour, when Hartley set his fastest lap.
Driers Vanthoor briefly moved into second place, driving the BMW Team WRT M Hybrid V8 #15. He set a lap time of 3:26.204 in the final minutes of the session. However, his lap was deleted for exceeding track limits. Vanthoor then set another lap time of 3:26.671, placing himself in third place, just a few hundredths of a second behind Ilott.
Julien Andlauer secured fourth place with a lap time of 3:26.891 in the Proton #99 Porsche 963. He set this time just minutes before the end of the session. Nyck de Vries finished in fifth place, driving the Toyota #7, over nine tenths of a second behind his teammate Hartley. Similar to Hartley, de Vries set his fastest lap in the second half of the session.
Alex Lynn caused the second red flag of the session when he spun his Cadillac V-Series.R #2 at Tertre Rouge and made contact with the barriers. Despite this incident, he was able to recover and return to the pits. Lynn finished in sixth place. Robin Frijns finished in seventh place in the BMW #20, with Antonio Fuoco in the Ferrari 499P #50 as the first of the Ferraris in eighth place.
Louis Deletraz was the fastest in the LMP2 class, driving the AO by TF Oreca 07-Gibson #14. He set a lap time of 3:34.245, almost eight tenths faster than James Allen in the Duqueine Oreca 07-Gibson #30, who finished in second place. Ben Hanley was half a tenth behind in the United Autosports USA Oreca 07-Gibson #23, securing third place.
The top three cars in the LMP2 class were all cars from the LMP2 pro/am subclass. However, the drivers who set the fastest laps were the professional drivers of these cars. The machinery used by all teams in the LMP2 class is identical, with each team using the Oreca 07-Gibson combination.
Bent Viscaal finished fourth in the LMP2 ‘pro’ class, driving the Proton Competition Oreca 07-Gibson #9. Nolan Siegel and Clement Novalak finished fifth and sixth in the LMP2 class, driving the Alpine A424 #35 and the GR Racing Ferrari 296 #86, respectively.
In the LMGT3 class, Inception Racing, with their McLaren 720S LMGT3 EVO #70 and bronze-rated driver Brendon Iribe, led during the early stages of the session. United Autosports, which has two McLarens in the WEC, finished in second place with their car #59 driven by Gregoire Saucy. The difference between the two cars was only a few seconds.
Many teams used the session to perform longer runs in order to optimize tire usage during the race. Despite this, the qualifying session was still to come for the 23 LMGT3 cars.
There were some incidents during the session. The Akkodis ASP Lexus #78, driven by Arnold Robin, had issues and stopped near the Mulsanne Corner. The Alpine A424 #35, driven by Ferdinand Habsburg, also stopped at the Dunlop Chicane, causing the first red flag of the session. The Lexus managed to return to the pits with the help of the team, while the Alpine had to be pushed to the pitlane.
Later, Michael Wainwright had problems with his Ferrari 296 #86 from GR Racing and stopped at the first chicane, triggering a slow zone. Alex Riberas also momentarily stopped his Aston Martin Vantage AMR #27 from Heart of Racing at the entrance of Chicane Dunlop, but managed to continue.
At the end of the session, Brendon Iribe set the fastest lap time of 3:58.770 in the McLaren #70 from Inception Racing, placing himself at the top of the LMGT3 class. Gregoire Saucy finished in second place with a lap time of 3:58.975 in the McLaren #59 from United Autosports. Daniel Mancinelli from Heart of Racing finished in third place with a lap time of 3:59.058 in the Aston Martin #27. The Ferrari #86 from GR Racing, driven by Michael Wainwright, finished in fourth place with a lap time of 3:59.277. Franck Perera completed the top five in the Lamborghini Huracan LMGT3 EVO2 #60 from Iron Lynx, setting a lap time of 3:59.317.
© 2024
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