Track action ahead of the 4 Hours of Le Castellet is underway, and it was Ben Hanley who paced the field in Free Practice 1 for the ELMS runners in DragonSpeed’s Michelin-shod #21 ORECA 07 Gibson. The Briton set a 1:41.227 to go nearly a full second faster than the rest of the field in LMP2.
Second in the times was the RLR Msport ORECA, the British team getting off to a fast start in its first weekend as an LMP2 entrant after ELMS newcomer Arjun Maini’s 1:42.085.
G-Drive Racing’s new boy Job Van Uitert completed the top three with a 1:42.085.
None of the top three came close to eclipsing Anders Fjordbach’s LMP2 lap-record-breaking 1:40.404 from Day 1 of testing. The weather is undoubtedly a factor here, the rain showers over the past few days affecting the grip levels. And with more rain this afternoon, the track is unlikely to be at its best for tomorrow’s running either.
Fourth in the times was the #37 Cool Racing ORECA. Antonin Borga, another driver in his first weekend as an LMP2 driver, set the time, to go just under a tenth faster than Paul Ricard LMP2 lap record holder Fjordbach in the High Class ORECA.
In the LMP3 class, the #10 Oregon Team Norma M30, which increasingly looks like a contender with each passing session here at Ricard, led the way. Damiani Fioravanti managed to go seven tenths faster than David Droux who ended up second in the #9 Realteam Racing M30.
The best of the Ligiers in the field ended up fifth, behind the #19 M Racing and #17 Ultimate Normas. Wayne Boyd was the fastest of the JS P3 pack, with a 1:52.068, 1.4 seconds off Fioravanti.
Porsches meanwhile, ended up 1-2-3 in the GTE class. The 911 RSRs look dominant here, DSC believes, due to their top speed advantage down the Mistral Straight this week over the Ferrari 488s. On the speed trap, the fastest Porsche, that of Ebimotors, hit 278.4 kph, while the best of the Ferraris, the #88 Kessel Racing example, could only manage 272.7, slower than all of the Porsches.
The best time though didn’t come from Ebimotors. Instead, it was the #77 Dempsey Proton Racing 911 of Matteo Cairoli, with a 1:54.473.
The #88 Proton Porsche ended up second at the hands of Thomas Preining, the Austrian reeling off a 1:54.521 during the session. Project 1’s Porsche took third, ahead of the first of the Ferraris, the #55 Spirit of Race 488.
There was one Full Course Yellow during the 90-minute session, to recover the #3 United Autosports Ligier, which lost a wheel. There was also a red flag interruption when the #51 Luzich Racing Ferrari dropped oil on the track at Turn 3.
The second Free Practice session will take place tomorrow morning at 9:00am local time.
