Toyota dominates first free practice at Le Mans

Not surprisingly, the Toyota Gazoo Racing took the lead in the first three-hour driving session of the 2020 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The trio of the No. 050 TS7 Hybrid, championship leader, made up of Mike conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José Maria Lopez quickly rose to the forefront by setting a first benchmark in 3’22″280, more than six tenths ahead of the No. 8 sister car of Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima et Brendon Hartley.

The latter who increases the tempo half an hour from the end of the session in 3’21”951, before Nakajima only lowers the time in 3’21”656. Enough to ultimately beat Kamui Kobayashi on the No. 7, second in 3’21”990.

Followed by the two Rebellion R13 n°1 of Menezes – Nato – Senna and n°3 of Dumas – Delétraz – Berthon and the Enso CLM P1/01 n°4 – ByKolles Racing of Dillmann – Spengler – Webb.

In LM P2, if the No. 07 Oreca 29 – Racing Team Nederland Nyck de Vries – Giedo van der Garde – Frits van Eerd dominated for a long time, Kenta Yamashita, protégé of Toyota, distinguished himself in the last twenty minutes by hoisting the Oreca 07 n°33 – High Class Racing leads the category in 3’29”873.

The Dutch Oreca, stopped in the bends Porsche at the very end of the session, finished 2nd ahead of the #07 Oreca 38 – JOTA Sport of Antonio Felix da Costa – Anthony Davidson – Roberto Gonzalez.

Aston Martin dominates in GTE

The Aston Martin Vantage showed themselves to be the fastest in GTE Pro with the n°97 by Alex Lynn – Maxime Martin – Harry Tincknell dominant in 3’53″930, ahead of the n°95 of the Danish Train Marco Sorensen – Nicki Thiim, supported at Le Mans by Richard Westbrook.

The two follow Ferrari – AF Corse n°51 of Calado – Pier Guidi – Serra, winners in 2019 in GTE Pro, and n°71 of Bird – Rigon – Molina, the n°82 – Risi Competizione of the French crew Sébastien Bourdais – Olivier Pla – Jules Gounon and the n°63 – WeatherTech Racing of Vilander – MacNeil – Segal.

The two official Porsche 911 RSRs did not seem to increase the pace, being ranked at the back of the GTE Pro pack, more than 3″ behind the leading Aston Martin.

Aston Martin also dominated in GTE Am with the No. 98 Vantage of Ross Gunn, who supports Paul Dalla Lana and Augusto Farfus within Aston Martin Racing, and author of a lap in 3’55”484. Ferrari 488 GTE n°72 – HubAuto Racing of Chen – Blomqvist – Gomes and n°70 – MR Racing / Car Guy of Takeshi Kimura – Vincent Abril – Kei Cozzolino.

Several Slow Zones and yellow flags were deployed during the session, as well as a red flag at 1h11' to go, following a minor exit from the track for Steve Brooks (Porsche 911 RSR n°89 – Team Project1) at level from Indianapolis.

Free practice 2 will begin at 14 p.m. for a duration of three hours, before the single qualifying session from 17:15 p.m. to 18 p.m., which will determine the six cars per category qualified for the Hyperpole organized tomorrow.

Thursday will end with a nighttime free practice session from 20 p.m. to midnight.