In the final practice session before the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, James Calado set the pace by driving the #51 Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar to a time of 3m27.275s. This was faster than Esteban Gutierrez’s Le Mans-only #709 Glickenhaus-Pipo 007 by 1.003 seconds. Gutierrez was followed by Will Stevens in the Jota Porsche 963 LMDh, who missed qualifying due to an electronic problem. Kevin Estre improved to fourth after the red flag in the best of the factory Penske-run Porsches, his #6 machine usurping the Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Alexander Sims. The top six was completed by Jose Maria Lopez in the leading Toyota GR010 HYBRID, who was 1.648s down on Calado, and Antonio Fuoco in the second Ferrari secured seventh.
LMP2 and GTE Am Categories
Dries Vanthoor’s TF Sport-run Racing Team Turkey ORECA-Gibson 07 set the pace in the LMP2 category, setting a time of 3m36.229s, beating Job van Uitert by 0.421s in the ORECA fielded by Panis Racing. Prema’s Mirko Bortolotti secured the third-fastest time in the dying minutes of the session, demoting Tom Blomqvist to fourth in the #23 United Autosport entry. In the GTE Am category, Thomas Neubauer in the JMW Motorsport Ferrari 488 GTE Evo secured the top spot, beating Ferrari factory driver Daniel Serra’s Kessel example to the top spot by 0.104s with a 3m52.965s lap. Alessio Picariello and Jan Heylen followed in third and fourth, respectively, aboard their Iron Lynx Porsche 911 RSR-19 and Proton example. The pole winner Corvette Racing’s works-entered C8.R ended up sixth with Nicolas Varrone at the wheel.
The #93 Peugeot 9X8 LMH brought out the red flags when it stopped between the two Mulsanne Chicanes. The one-hour session was restarted with 20 minutes still on the clock, but there were few noteworthy improvements thereafter as Calado’s benchmark time held. The #3 Ganassi Cadillac didn’t turn a lap due to a burst high-pressure fuel hose causing a fire in Hyperpole. The #7 Toyota appeared in the final third of the session and ended up 14th in Sebastien Buemi’s hands ahead of the #93 Peugeot campaigned by Loic Duval. IDEC Sport ended up 14th with Laurents Horr setting its best time in the LMP2 category.
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