The 24 Hours of Le Mans circuit woke up this Sunday morning with the traditional Test Day truncated into two sessions. If Kamui Kobayashi achieved the best time during the morning session in 3:28.467 in the No. 7 Toyota GR010, the times dropped during the afternoon and it was Kévin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor’s teammate, who everyone agreed on the Porsche 963 No. 6. The Frenchman achieved his best time in 3:26.907. It should be noted that Vanthoor had set the 2nd fastest time in the morning session.
These performances must obviously be taken with the usual reserves. We remember that last year, Ferrari gained almost seven seconds between its reference time from the Test Day and the pole position time of 3:22.982. But we are already almost three seconds faster compared to the preliminary tests for the Le Mans event twelve months ago.
Kévin Estre takes a Porsche double as Felipe Nasr finishes two tenths behind in the No. 4 963. At seven tenths, we find the first Toyota, the No. 8 of Buemi-Hirakawa-Hartley, ahead of the last official Porsche of Campbell-Christensen-Makowiecki and the first Ferrari 499P, the No. 50 of Fuoco-Nielsen-Molina.
At BMW M Team WRT, we have had mixed fortunes. If the No. 20 achieved the sixth fastest time of the day thanks to Robin Frijns, the No. 15, notably driven by Dries Vanthoor, had to change its engine. With only twelve laps under her belt this afternoon, the Bavarian is 15th in the session, two places behind the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 of Stoffel Vandoorne.
In LMP2, after Job Van Uitert in the morning on the IDEC Sport mount, it was Oliver Jarvis who set the best time of the day and of the afternoon session in the No. 22 United Autosports Oreca . The Briton clocked 3:34.704.
Corvette took over the LMGT3 category with an absolute best time for Frenchman Sébastien Baud in the No. 82 of the TF Sport team. With a time of 3:59.883, he is 37 thousandths ahead of the No. 27 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage of Alex Riberas and the No. 31 Team WRT BMW M4 of Augusto Farfus. Eighth fastest time for the No. 85 Lamborghini Huracan of the Iron Dames thanks to Rahel Frey, Sarah Bovy’s teammate, just ahead of the No. 46 WRT BMW M4 whose reference time was set by Ahmad Al Harthy. The No. 81 Corvette of Tom Van Rompuy is 10th.
