In the Hypercar category, the #708 Glickenhaus Racing 007 LMH driven by Romain Dumas was fastest (1:36.813), some two tenths ahead of the two Peugeots with the #93 Peugeot Total Energies 9X8 driven by Mikkel Jensen (1:37.020) leading Gustavo Menezes in the sister car #94 (1:37.085). “So far, the car is running good” said Dumas. “We had no issues and we are very close to competition”.
The Glickenhaus was very much at ease in the first and second sectors of the track while the Peugeots seemed quick enough overall to aspire for pole position on their maiden race.
The fastest Toyota GR10 Hybrid is the #8 shared by Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa. It is half a second behind the fastest Hypercar (1:37.301) and one-tenth ahead of the #7 sister car driven by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez (1:37.546).
The slowest of the Hypercars is the #36 Alpine Elf Team A480 Gibson shared by André Negrao, Nicolas Lapierre and Mathieu Vaxivière (1:37.644). The Alpine is the only Hypercar that did not top the time sheets at some point in the session.
Meanwhile, in LMP2, Jonathan Aberdein was fastest in the #28 JOTA Oreca 07 Gibson (1:38.904) some two tenths ahead of Robin Frijns in the #31 WRT Oreca 07 Gibson (1:39.097) and three tenths ahead of Ferdinand Habsburg in the #41 Realteam by WRT Oreca 07 Gibson (1:39.147). Aberdein’s lap time betters the LMP2 fastest lap time this weekend by less than one-tenth of a second.
In the LMGTE Pro category, Michael Christensen in the #92 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR-19 improved this morning’s fastest lap time (1:46:000) in the earlier part of the session. Moments later though, Nick Tandy in the #64 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8R bettered with a (1:45.902) lap time. He stayed at the top of the category’s time sheets for the remainder of the session. Alessandro Pier Guidi was third in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo (1:46:401) after encountering overheating issues with his engine.
Finally, in the LMGTE Am category, Nicholas Cassidy in the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo set the fastest lap time in the final moments of the session (1.47.676). He is less than two-tenths faster than Harry Tincknell in the Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 (1:47.823). Third is Giancarlo Fisichella in the #60 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GTE Evo (1:47.834).
Next, is the Qualifying Session starting at 5.30 pm local time.
