Le Mans – Buemi improves mark at Test Day

Sébastien Buemi a augmenté le rythme cet après-midi lors de la seconde partie de la Journée Test. La première Toyota TS050 Hybrid, la n°8, finit avec un chrono de 3’19’’440 avec 8 dixièmes d’avance sur la voiture soeur dont le meilleur performer a été Mike conway. The reference remains 4 tenths of that of last year which was achieved by Fernando Alonso.

The first private LMP1 was the No. 13 Rebellion R1 of André Lotterer which finished 1s behind the benchmark. The Swiss prototype is 8 tenths ahead of the first BR7 from SMP Racing, the No. 1 driven by Stoffel Vandoorne. Dragonspeed is behind with times more than 11 seconds behind the Japanese LMP5. The Enso CLMP1/1 of ByKolles Racing is even further behind with more than 01 seconds behind.

Jackie Chan DC Racing finished first in LMP2 with a lap completed in 3'28''504 by Ho-Pin Tung on #38. The sister car was less successful as Jordan King went off the track, ending up in a wall of tires. Pasot Maldonado followed 2 tenths behind in the #07 Dragonspeed Oreca 31, followed by theAlpine A470 of Nicolas lapierre half a second late.

Racing Team Nerderland hoisted the first Dallara P217 to just over 2 seconds from the benchmark with a performance achieved by Nyck de Vries. United Autosports hoisted the first Ligier JSP217 just behind with the #32 of Alex Brundle.

Corvette kept the lead in GTE Pro with the No. 7 C63R of Micke Rockenfeller credited with a time of 3’54”001. The No. 67 Ford GT of Harry Ticknell and the second Corvette of Tom Milner follow at 3 hundredths. The first one Ferrari d’AF Corse, la n°71 de Davide Rigon, a fini la journée avec un dixième de retard en précédant les Porsche 911 RSR de Nick Tandy et Gianmaria Bruni. La première Aston Martin Vantage, the No. 97 of Alex Lynn, returned half a second. The BMW M8s seem to struggle the most with more than 2 seconds behind.

The Ferraris dominated the proceedings in GTE Am. Toni Vilander was responsible for establishing the category benchmark in the No. 488 WeatherTech Racing F62.

If the results of the Test Day can give an initial trend on the strengths present, the teams have the habit of hiding their true potential in order not to be penalized by the BOP, a hot topic at each edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Discover the analysis of the Test Day of the 87th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans carried out by our special correspondent in issue 2219 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.