Le Mans 24h: Toyota leads red-flagged first practice
Toyota took the top two positions in opening practice for this weekend's rescheduled Le Mans 24 Hours round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Photo by: motosport.com
Kazuki Nakajima ended up fastest over the course of the three-hour session, posting a 3m21.656s aboard the #8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid in the closing stages.
That eclipsed teammate Brendon Hartley's 3m21.951s, while the #7 car also improved in the final minutes with a 3m21.990s from Kamui Kobayashi.
The #7 Toyota didn't record a representative time for the first hour of the session because it only completed installation laps as part of the aerodynamic calibration process for the latest Le Mans body package on the car.
The best of the Rebellion Racing privateer LMP1 entries was just over a second down on the second of the Toyotas.
Gustavo Menezes posted a 3m23.155s in the #1 Rebellion R-13, which compared with the 3m25.216s from Louis Deletraz in the team's second entry.
The ByKolles ENSO CLM P1/01 brought up the rear of the five-car P1 field on a 3m28.442s from Oliver Webb.
The times were slower than in first free practice for Le Mans last year. Kobayashi was fastest in the opening four-hour afternoon session on a 3m18.091s in 2019.
High Class Racing led the way in the LMP2 class courtesy of a 3m29.873s from Le Mans debutant Kenta Yamashita aboard its Oreca 07.
The Toyota-backed reigning SUPER GT champion eclipsed a 3m29.918s from Giedo van der Garde in the TDS Racing-run Racing Team Nederland Oreca with 20 minutes remaining to make it two Michelin-tyred cars at the top of the order.
Third place went to the Goodyear-shod JOTA Sport Oreca in which Antonio Felix da Costa set a 3m31.206s early in the session.
The Duqueine Engineering team end up fourth with a 3m31.309s, while the JOTA-run Jackie Chan DC Racing entry was fifth on 3m31.348s.
The two factory Aston Martins were on top in GTE Pro for the majority of the session.
Alex Lynn ended up fastest on a 3m53.930s, which was more than a second up on the 3m54.992s recorded by Nicki Thiim in the sister Vantage GTE.
James Calado was close behind on a 3m55.186s in his factory AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.
That was eight tenths quicker than the 3m55.999s from the second of the works Ferraris shared by Davide Rigon, Miguel Molina and Sam Bird.
The two privateer GTE Pro Ferraris run by Risi Competizione and Scuderia Corsa took fifth and sixth positions, while the two factory Porsche 911 RSR-19s brought up the rear of the eight-car GTE Pro field.
GTE Am was led by the works-run Aston Martin Vantage GTE on a 3m55.484s from Ross Gunn. That put the car eight tenths up on the HubAuto Ferrari in second place.
The session was briefly red flagged during its middle hour when the #89 GTE Am Project 1 Porsche had to be recovered from Indianapolis.
Practice resumes 2:00pm local time before the first qualifying session at 5:15pm. The fastest six cars in each class (or all the P1s) will go through to 30-minute Hyperpole session.
First practice results:
Pos. | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap | Interval |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 8 | Sebastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 3'21.656 | ||
2 | 7 | Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 3'21.990 | 0.334 | 0.334 |
3 | 1 | Bruno Senna Norman Nato Gustavo Menezes |
Rebellion R13 | LMP1 | 3'23.155 | 1.499 | 1.165 |
4 | 3 | Romain Dumas Nathanaël Berthon Louis Deletraz |
Rebellion R13 | LMP1 | 3'25.216 | 3.560 | 2.061 |
5 | 4 | Tom Dillmann Bruno Spengler Oliver Webb |
ENSO CLM P1/01 | LMP1 | 3'28.442 | 6.786 | 3.226 |
6 | 33 | Kenta Yamashita Mark Patterson Anders Fjordbach |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'29.873 | 8.217 | 1.431 |
7 | 29 | Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Nyck de Vries |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'29.918 | 8.262 | 0.045 |
8 | 38 | Anthony Davidson Antonio Felix da Costa Roberto Gonzalez |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'31.206 | 9.550 | 1.288 |
9 | 30 | Jonathan Hirschi Konstantin Tereshchenko Tristan Gommendy |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'31.309 | 9.653 | 0.103 |
10 | 37 | Ho-Pin Tung Gabriel Aubry Will Stevens |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'31.348 | 9.692 | 0.039 |
11 | 26 | Roman Rusinov Jean-Eric Vergne Mikkel Jensen |
Aurus 01 | LMP2 | 3'31.448 | 9.792 | 0.100 |
12 | 28 | Paul Lafargue Paul Loup Chatin Richard Bradley |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'31.751 | 10.095 | 0.303 |
13 | 22 | Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque Paul di Resta |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'31.944 | 10.288 | 0.193 |
14 | 27 | Henrik Hedman Ben Hanley Renger van der Zande |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.010 | 10.354 | 0.066 |
15 | 16 | Ryan Cullen Oliver Jarvis Nick Tandy |
Aurus 01 | LMP2 | 3'32.096 | 10.440 | 0.086 |
16 | 32 | William Owen Alex Brundle Job van Uitert |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.154 | 10.498 | 0.058 |
17 | 42 | Nicolas Lapierre Antonin Borga Alexandre Coigny |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.188 | 10.532 | 0.034 |
18 | 21 | Juan Pablo Montoya Timothe Buret Memo Rojas |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'32.524 | 10.868 | 0.336 |
19 | 31 | Nico Jamin Julien Canal Matthieu Vaxivière |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.166 | 11.510 | 0.642 |
20 | 36 | André Negrão Pierre Ragues Thomas Laurent |
Alpine A470 | LMP2 | 3'33.312 | 11.656 | 0.146 |
21 | 39 | James Allen Vincent Capillaire Charles Milesi |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'33.818 | 12.162 | 0.506 |
22 | 50 | Tatiana Calderón Sophia Floersch Beitske Visser |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'35.507 | 13.851 | 1.689 |
23 | 25 | John Falb Simon Trummer Matthew McMurry |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'35.685 | 14.029 | 0.178 |
24 | 35 | Nobuya Yamanaka Nick Foster Roberto Merhi |
Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 3'36.012 | 14.356 | 0.327 |
25 | 24 | Garret Grist Alex Kapadia Anthony Wells |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'36.698 | 15.042 | 0.686 |
26 | 34 | Jakub Smiechowski Rene Binder Matevos Isaakyan |
Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 3'36.818 | 15.162 | 0.120 |
27 | 47 | Roberto Lacorte Andrea Belicchi Giorgio Sernagiotto |
Dallara P217 | LMP2 | 3'36.948 | 15.292 | 0.130 |
28 | 11 | Adrien Tambay Erik Maris Christophe d'Ansembourg |
Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 3'37.149 | 15.493 | 0.201 |
29 | 17 | Dwight Merriman Kyle Tilley John Kennard |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3'38.589 | 16.933 | 1.440 |
30 | 97 | Maxime Martin Alex Lynn Harry Tincknell |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 3'53.930 | 32.274 | 15.341 |
31 | 95 | Nicki Thiim Marco Sorensen Richard Westbrook |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 3'54.992 | 33.336 | 1.062 |
32 | 51 | Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Daniel Serra |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 3'55.186 | 33.530 | 0.194 |
33 | 98 | Paul Dalla Lana Ross Gunn Augusto Farfus |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 3'55.484 | 33.828 | 0.298 |
34 | 71 | Davide Rigon Miguel Molina Sam Bird |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 3'55.999 | 34.343 | 0.515 |
35 | 82 | Olivier Pla Sebastien Bourdais Jules Gounon |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 3'56.273 | 34.617 | 0.274 |
36 | 72 | Morris Chen Tom Blomqvist Marcos Gomes |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'56.350 | 34.694 | 0.077 |
37 | 63 | Cooper MacNeil Toni Vilander Jeffrey Segal |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 3'56.425 | 34.769 | 0.075 |
38 | 70 | Takeshi Kimura Vincent Abril Kei Cozzolino |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'56.609 | 34.953 | 0.184 |
39 | 92 | Michael Christensen Kevin Estre Laurens Vanthoor |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 3'56.705 | 35.049 | 0.096 |
40 | 90 | Salih Yoluc Charlie Eastwood Jonathan Adam |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 3'56.988 | 35.332 | 0.283 |
41 | 61 | Francesco Piovanetti Oswaldo Negri Jr Côme Ledogar |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'57.048 | 35.392 | 0.060 |
42 | 77 | Christian Ried Riccardo Pera Matt Campbell |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'57.237 | 35.581 | 0.189 |
43 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Ben Barker Andrew Watson |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'57.344 | 35.688 | 0.107 |
44 | 91 | Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 3'57.412 | 35.756 | 0.068 |
45 | 57 | Ben Keating Felipe Fraga Jeroen Bleekemolen |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'57.628 | 35.972 | 0.216 |
46 | 54 | Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'57.847 | 36.191 | 0.219 |
47 | 56 | Egidio Perfetti Larry ten Voorde Matteo Cairoli |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'58.150 | 36.494 | 0.303 |
48 | 88 | Thomas Preining Dominique Bastien Adrien de Leener |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'58.441 | 36.785 | 0.291 |
49 | 60 | Claudio Schiavoni Sergio Pianezzola Paolo Ruberti |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'58.569 | 36.913 | 0.128 |
50 | 85 | Manuela Gostner Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'58.793 | 37.137 | 0.224 |
51 | 83 | François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Nicklas Nielsen |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'58.850 | 37.194 | 0.057 |
52 | 55 | Duncan Cameron Aaron Scott Matt Griffin |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'59.196 | 37.540 | 0.346 |
53 | 75 | Rino Mastronardi Matteo Cressoni Andrea Piccini |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'59.363 | 37.707 | 0.167 |
54 | 99 | Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak Lucas Légeret Julien Andlauer |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 3'59.369 | 37.713 | 0.006 |
55 | 66 | Richard Heistand Max Root Jan Magnussen |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 3'59.487 | 37.831 | 0.118 |
56 | 78 | Horst Felbermayr Jr. Michele Beretta Max van Splunteren |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 4'01.031 | 39.375 | 1.544 |
57 | 62 | Bonamy Grimes Johnny Mowlem Charles Hollings |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 4'01.063 | 39.407 | 0.032 |
58 | 89 | Philippe Haezebrouck Julien Piguet Andreas Laskaratos |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 4'04.458 | 42.802 | 3.395 |
59 | 52 | Christoph Ulrich Steffen Gorig Alexander West |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 4'06.371 | 44.715 | 1.913 |
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