24 Hours of Le Mans – Free Practice 2: Toyota No. 8 in the lead but damaged

Between two qualifying and Hyperpole sessions, the competitors of the 93rd edition returned to the track this Wednesday evening for the second Free Practice session, held at night. Only 60 cars participated, the Mercedes-AMG No. 63, damaged during Free Practice 1, and the Corvette No. 33, immobilized in its garage due to a gearbox leak, having not set a time.

The No. 8 Toyota collides with a Ferrari 296 GT3

This second free practice session of the day was particularly calm, apart from a red flag caused by debris from a Ford Mustang at Mulsanne. Ferrari The No. 83 AF Corse team, entered for Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson, had set the provisional best time of 3:25.101 thanks to the Polish driver. However, the latter lost all his times for speeding in the pit lane. Toyota No. 8 by Ryō Hirakawa, Sébastien Buemi et Brendon Hartley thus inherited the best official time, in 3:26.156. The Cadillac No. 12 of Will Stevens, Norman Nato and Alex Lynn took second place, 0.451 seconds behind, ahead of the Ferrari No. 83, which dropped to third place.

The end of the session was marked by an accident in the very last moments between Hirakawa, driving the #8 Toyota, and Casper Stevenson, on the Ferrari 296 GT3 No. 57 entered by Kessel Racing. After a spin, the Japanese driver was nevertheless able to return to the pits, despite a puncture on the right rear wheel.

VIDEO - Free Practice 2: The No. 8 Toyota and the No. 296 Ferrari 3 GT57 collide at the very end of the session

La Peugeot No. 93 of Jean-Éric Vergne, Mikkel Jensen and Paul di Resta set the 11th fastest time, just ahead ofAlpine No. 35 of Paul-Loup Chatin, Charles Milesi and Ferdinand Habsburg. Disqualified from the qualifying session due to a weight that did not comply with the weigh-in, the Porsche No. 6 finished in last position in this session.

In LMP2, the No. 07 Oreca 199 of the AO by TF team, driven by Dane Cameron, PJ Hyett and Louis Delétraz, set the fastest time in 3:37.515. In LMGT3, the Akkodis ASP Team continued its momentum, with the No. 87 Lexus of Petru Umbrarescu, Clemens Schmid and Jose Maria Lopez in the lead, ahead of the No. 78 of Arnold Robin, Jack Hawksworth and Finn Gehrsitz. The No. 92 Porsche of Manthey 1st Phorm completed the podium in the category.

Join us at 14:45 p.m. this Thursday for Free Practice 3 of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

24 Hours of Le Mans 2025
The ranking of Free Practice 2

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