Nicolas Jamin was the quickest during this morning’s second free practice session. The Frenchman topped the time sheets in the #32 United Autosport Oreca 07 Gibson (1.31.403). Paul-Loup Chatin was second fastest in the #28 IDEC Sport Oreca 07 Gibson, some three tenths behind the LMP2 leading car (1.31.796) and one-tenth ahead of the Pro/Am leader – the #25 G-Drive Racing Aurus 01 Gibson LMP2 driven by Gustavo Menezes (1.31.826).
The LMP2 cars in contention for the 24 Hours of Le Mans automatic invitation were right behind: the #22 United Autosport Oreca 07 Gibson was fourth (1.32.443) and the #65 Panis Racing Oreca Gibson fifth (1.31.960). The #26 G-Drive Racing Oreca 07 Gibson and the #30 Duqueine Engineering Oreca 07 Gibson were further down in the ranks, respectively in eighth (1.32.154) and fourteenth (1.32.837) position in the category.
Two LMP2 cars were involved in racing incidents this morning: first, the #35 BHK Motorsport Oreca 07 Gibson collided with Iron Lynx #83 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo. The team indicated that although the Oreca could be repaired, they believed that the performance of the prototype would be impaired for most of the remainder of the race weekend.
Finally, as the session come to an end, the #34 Racing Team Turkey collided with the #60 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GTE Evo at Turn 13. This triggered a red flag episode. Drivers were uninjured. The damage to the Oreca on the left-hand side was too extensive to see the car out for qualifying whilst the right-hand side damage to the Ferrari was also significant – the two trying to make repairs in time to qualify
Meanwhile, in LMP3, Wayne Boyd dominated the entire session in #2 the United Autosport Ligier JSP320 Nissan (1.36.953). Laurents Horr in the #4 DKR Engineering Duqueine M30 D08 Nissan was second fastest (1.37.014) in the category, way ahead of his only rival for the title, the #19 Cool Racing Ligier JSP320 shared by Nicolas Maulini, Matt Bell and Niklas Kruetten (Ninth – 1.38.515). Ugo de Wilde in the #13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier JSP320 Nissan locked third fastest lap time (1.37.056).
Finally, in LMGTE, the championship leader, the #80 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GTE Evo shared by Matteo Cressoni, Rino Mastrordani and Miguel Molina topped the time sheets (1.40.177). The #77 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR driven by Gianmaria Bruni was second fastest (1.40.284), only one-tenth ahead of Richard Lietz in the #93 sister car (1.40.315)
The other contender for the LMGTE Teams title this weekend, the #88 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo driven by Francois Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard and Alessio Rovera ended n sixth position (1.40.828).
