24H. Le Mans – Free Practice 2: Glickenhaus at the party

A little diversity doesn't hurt. While Toyota Gazoo Racing dominated testing from Wednesday of 24 Hours of Le Mans disputed during the day, the Team Cameron Glickenhaus (SCG) regained the lead at the hour of the first training session held at night.

Le Français Romain Dumas a été le plus véloce sur une piste plus fraîche mais totalement sèche. Le double vainqueur de l’épreuve sarthoise (en 2010 avec Audi et en 2016 avec Porsche), associé au Brésilien Luis-Felipe ’Pipo’’ Derani et au Français Olivier Pla, a réalisé 15 tours avec un meilleur temps de 3’28’’900.

Take a ride in the @Glickenhaus Hypercar with @RomainDumas at the controls. What a sight!

️https://t.co/4J3q5Z45q3# LeMans24 | @FIAWEC pic.twitter.com/sxAJIPgXFk

- 24 Hours of Le Mans (@ 24hoursoflemans) June 8, 2022

La Toyota GR010-Hybride de Sébastien Buemi-Brendon Hartley-Ryo Hirakawa finished with a deficit of 348 thousandths, while the sister car, that of Mike conway-Kamui Kobayashi-José Maria Lopez, is rejected at 848 thousandths. Franck Mailleux (Glickenhaus) and Matthieu Vaxiviere (Alpine) were very discreet and their respective times were 3”6 slower.

In LM P2, Team WRT has a string of great performances. GT specialist René Rast set a best time in the category in 3'33''119 in the No. 31 Oreca, which had already set the best time in qualifying earlier in the day. Only 12th in qualifying, and therefore rejected from the hyperpole, the Cool Racing Oreca (Yifei Ye-Ricky Taylor-Niklas Kruetten) climbed to third place ahead of Prema. The mount of Sébastien Ogier, driven by his Richard Mille Racing teammate Charles Milesi, is 5th.

On the GTE Pro side, the session was led most of the evening by the Corvette C8.R of Antonio Garcia-Jordan Taylor-Nicky Catsburg. The American team Corvette Racing supervises the Porsche 911 RSR of Gianmaria Bruni-Richard Lietz-Frédéric Makowiecki. Not qualified for the Hyperpole, the private Ferrari 488 GTE of Riley Motorsports (Felipe Fraga-Sam Bird-Shane Van Gisbergen) finished at the foot of the virtual podium. The two official Ferraris deliberately drove without looking for pure performance because they brought up the rear more than a second behind.

In GTE Am, the Porsches of Team Project 1 (Matteo Cairoli, Mikkel Pedersen-Niki Leutwiler) and Dempsey-Proton Competition (Fred Poordad-Maxwell Root-Jan Heylen) were in great form. The 100% female trio of Iron Dames (Michelle Gatting-Sarah Bovy-Rahel Frey) finished with the fourth best time, while their pink Ferrari was accepted into Hyperpole.

Two cars were left in their garage this evening. Victims of accidents in qualifying, the Oreca 07 of Steven Thomas-James Allen-René Binder (Algarve Pro Racing) and the Porsche 911 RSR of Michael Fassbender-Matt Campbell-Zacharie Robichon (Proton Compétition) were repaired by the mechanics, including a change of chassis for the LM P2.

The next free practice session is scheduled for Thursday at 15 p.m.