24h of Le Mans – Toyota, G-Drive and Porsche at the forefront in testing

Without any real surprise, the first four hours of driving, for the first free practice session of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2018, ont été dominées par le Toyota Gazoo Racing. The TS050 Hybrid n°7 Kamui Kobayashi, Mike conway and José Maria Lopez set the best time with the Japanese driver in 3'18″718.

Un chrono déjà en avance par rapport aux temps de passage de 2017, lorsque la Porsche 919 Hybrid avait tourné en 3’20″362.

The No. 050 Toyota TS8 Hybrid Sébastien Buemi - Fernando Alonso - Kazuki Nakajima allows the Japanese manufacturer to achieve a double with a final time from the Swiss five tenths behind Kobayashi's benchmark.

Rebellion Racing, with the No. 13 R3 of Thomas Laurent – ​​Mathias Beche – Gustavo Menezes, follows at 0″7 after several improvements by the French driver in the last part of the session. Laurent, however, made a mistake at Indianapolis, and slightly damaged the right rear of his LM P1 prototype.

The BR1 n°10 – Dragonspeed of Hedman – Hanley – van der Zande ranks third at 1″6 and ahead at 2″3. The BR1 – SMP Racing n°11 of Jenson Button – Vitaly Petrov – Mikhail Aleshin follows at 2″5 ahead of the second Rebellion R13 n°1 of Lotterer – Jani – Senna and the BR1 n°17 ​​of Stéphane Sarrazin – Egor Orudzhev – Matevos Isakyaan.

The CLM P1/01 – Nismo n°4 – ByKolles of Dilmann – Kraihamer – Webb finished its tests with the 8th fastest time at 5″.

The Ginetta G60-LT-P1 – CEFEC TRSM Racing, however, was not at the party since the two LM P1 prototypes completed only 15 laps for the #5 and 7 for the #6. The No. 5 of Robertson – Simpson – Roussel was stopped in the first moments of the session at Tertre Rouge after electrical problems.

This same car subsequently made a mistake exiting the Dunlop corner one hour from the end of the session. The No. 6, for its part, suffered mechanical problems, before the team indicated that it had to replace the engine.

Unfortunately that is the end of the session for #6 as we have to replace the engine. #5 is still on track and in P9. pic.twitter.com/gO9yZi8m4q

— TRSM Racing (@ManorWEC) June 13, 2018

G-Drive and Vergne at the end of the session

In LM P2, IDEC Sports practically never let go of the controls, with a first reference time established shortly before the first half hour by Paul-Loup Chatin, teammate of Paul Lafargue and Memo Rojas, in 3'27″054.

But Jean-Eric Vergne finally improved to 3'26"529 in the last quarter of an hour. The Frenchman associated with Roman Rusinov and Andrea Pizzitola on the No. 07 Oreca 26 – G-Drive set the best time with five tenths ahead of the IDEC crew.

TDS Racing, with its trio Matthieu Vaxivière – François Perrodo – Loïc duval signs the third time with the Oreca 07 n°28, 1″2 thousandths from the reference.

The Oreca 07 n°31 – Dragonspeed of Gonzalez – Maldonado – Berthon follows in fourth position ahead of the Oreca 07 n°39 – Graff-SO24 of Capillaire – Gommendy – Hirschi. The best Ligier JS P217, the No. 22 – United Autosports of Hanson – Albuquerque – di Resta, finished these four hours of running in sixth position, 1″7 behind the benchmark.

The Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca 07s experienced their share of mishaps with the #37 idling at the start of the session, before ending up in the gravel trap after Indianapolis, with a seriously damaged front end. This car finished 7th in the session.

Panis-Barthez Competition and Signatech Alpine finished the session just outside the top 10 at 3″1 and 3″6 respectively. Juan Pablo Montoya, lined up in the No. 217 Ligier JS P32 – United Autosports with Hugo de Sadeleer and Will Owen, takes 13th position in LM P2.

Porsche monopolizes the first places in GTE

Porsche largely dominated the GTE Pro category with the hat-trick of 911 RSR n°93 from Pilet – Tandy – Bamber, n°92 from Vanthoor – Estre – Christensen and n°91 from Makowiecki – Bruni – Lietz. Patrick Pilet set the best time in 3'50″330 with 21′ to go before improving in 3'50 "121.

The Auscitain, however, made a mistake by kissing the protective tires at the exit of the first Hunaudières chicane.

Olivier Pla lifts the No. 66 Ford GT to fourth place at 1″3 and precedes the first Ferrari 488 GTE n°71 – AF Corse de Bird – Rigon – Molina. Follows the No. 911 Porsche 94 RSR of Dumas – Bernhard – Müller.

The Ferrari n°51, the Ford GT n°68, n°69, n°67, which made a mistake at Mulsanne, the Ferrari n°52, the Ford GT n°69 follow in the ranking ahead of the two Corvette C7.Rs official.

The best BMW M8 GTE, the No. 82 of Farfus – Felix da Costa – Sims, set the 14th time in the category in 3'53″677. L'Aston Martin Vantage n°97 proved to be the best of Gaydon's cars, despite an error from Jonny Adam, who finished his race in the tank at Mulsanne.

Porsche was also the best manufacturer in GTE Am with the best time for the 911 RSR n°88 – Dempsey – Proton Racing de Al Qubaisi – Cairoli – Roda, in 3’52″903, nine tenths ahead of another 911 RSR, the No. 86 – Gulf Racing of Wainwright – Barker – Davison, which held first place for a long time.

The top three is completed by the No. 488 Ferrari 54 GTE – Spirit of Race by Giancarlo Fisichella – Thomas Flohr – Francesco Castellaci.

Free practice ranking

The first qualifications will begin at 22 p.m. and will again be followed live on our website with our live text.