The #708 Glickenhaus Racing 007 LMH shared by Olivier Pla, Romain Dumas and Pipo Derani topped the evening’s free practice session (3:28.900)- Romain Dumas providing the fast lap tonight.
The #7 Toyota shared by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez (3:29.164) took second position, less than one tenth ahead of the the sister car #8 shared by Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Roy Hirakawa (3:29.248). The #709 Glickenhaus Racing 007 LMH ended fourth overall (3:31.461) while the #36 Alpine Elf Team A480 Gibson locked the final Hypercar’s position (3:32.592)
As soon as the session started, Brendon Hartley clocked several fast laps in the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid and topped the time sheets (3:29.248). He even went off at Mulsanne but returned on track without damaging his car.
“We lost some time in the previous (qualifying) session while trying to fix the #8’s rear suspension” said technical director Pascal Vasselon. “There’s really nothing to worry about (…) We are now using all the practice sessions to better our lap times, especially as grip improves and as drivers gain confidence in the car. Pole is not at all important to us and it should never be an objective for a 24 hour race. That said, we would love Kamui to get his fifth pole position tomorrow and even Jacky Ickx’s record. So we are going to put some efforts into this”
Soon after, Romain Dumas topped the time sheets with a lap time of 3:28.900. “We can win this race”, said the Frenchman. “Yet, we are realistic. We are progressing without doing much testing overall but we are not a works team. We’ll just do our best.”. That fast time was enough to keep his car in first position until the chequered flag.
Meanwhile in LMP2, battle raged between the #22 United Autosport Oreca 07 Gibson and the #31 Team WRT Oreca 07 Gibson. Both cars led the category’s time sheets at some point in the session. The #31 Team WRT driven by Sean Gelael, Robin Frijns and René Rast ultimately snatched the fastest LMP2 lap time (3:33.119), Frijns’ best some two tenths ahead of the #22 United Autosport Oreca 07 Gibson shared by Phil Hanson, Filipe Albuquerque and Will Owen (3:33.382). Rolf Ineichen, Mirko Borlotti and Dries Vanthoor took third position in the #32 Team WRT, less then three tenths behind the lead LMP2 car .
Further down in the ranks:
– the #10 Vector Sport Oreca 07 Gibson shared by Nico Muller, Ryan Cullen and Sébastien Bourdais finally covered 22 laps. They ended the session in 23rd position in their category (3:35.711) after an engine change following the car stopping on track in Free Practice 1.
– the #43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca 07 Gibson driven by Fabio Scherer stopped on the start/finish straight after suffering from front right suspension damage after the car clattered a sausage kerb. The car was returned to the pits on a flat bed.
– the #45 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca 07 Racing remained in the pits as the car was still being rebuilt around a spare Oreca chassis.
GTE-Pro
Learning how new tyre compounds perform in falling temperatures being key to the night stints of this year’s race, the second free practice session was the first opportunity to gather that experience and data.
Two seconds covered the best efforts of GTE-Pro’s final Le Mans entry, many of the times set early in the session as darkness was creeping in. The #63 Corvette C8.R held station at the top of the category’s timing screen, Nicky Catsburg’s 3:53.492 just a couple of tenths off Antonio Garcia’s best in qualifying. Fred Makowiecki’s fastest lap for the #91 Porsche was 3:53.669, sandwiched between the two Corvettes, the #64 C8.R best session time three-hundredths shy.
Riley Motorsports may not have made Hyperpole, but their Le Mans shakedown seems to be going steadily, untroubled so far and running fourth in this practice period, Sam Bird getting some decent seat time.
AF Corse’s Ferrari pair ran for most of the session, a couple of seconds off the leading pace, but stealthily poised.
GTE-Am
This session saw Le Mans rookies – mostly but not always Bronze drivers – on their installation laps and night lap ‘sighters’, but focus noticeably shifted to race pace and further set up work. Getting confident and up to speed in the car was an early priority in GTE-Am even though there are two more free practice sessions to come tomorrow.
Mikkel Pedersen’s late 3:55.629 edged the #46 Team Project 1 Porsche to the top of the GTE-Am score sheet, with Jan Heylen’s 3:55.729 for the #88 Dempsey-Proton car making it a Porsche 1-2.
Nicki Thiim’s work rate for Northwest AMR was typically solid, the #98 Aston Martin Vantage AMR settling in well, 3:55.941 his best lap early in the session to run third, Matteo Cairolli and Ben Barnicoat for Team Project 1’s Porsches swapping times with the Dane at the top in the process, these times just half a second shy of the ‘slowest’ GTE-Pro laps.
The distinctive pink #85 Iron Dames Ferrari continued an encouraging showing in fourth, with Charlie Fagg’s debut for D’Station pulling the #777 Aston Martin forward to post fifth quickest lap of the session.
Proton Competition were another team working into the night with the #93 being rebuilt around a spare chassis, the hit with the armco from Michael Fassbender causing very significant damage.
