Le Mans 24 Hours: promising free practice

The 2018 Le Mans 24 Hours action kicked off with this evening’s four-hour free practice session which ended with Toyota Gazoo Racing at the top the order with its two Michelin-equipped TS050-Hybrids. The afternoon’s fastest time was the work of last year’s pole-setter Kamui Kobayashi (N°7, 3m18.718s) who was 0.557s quicker than Buemi in the N°8 car.

Anybody who believes the Japanese team has no competition this year at Le Mans should take a close look at the provisional gaps, though, since three non-hybrid LMP1 prototypes representing three different teams (Rebellion, Dragonspeed and SMP Racing) lapped within two-and-a-half seconds of Kobayashi. Porsche/Michelin set the pace in both LM GTE Pro and Am, monopolising the top three places of the Pro classification with its N°93, N°92 and N°91 cars, while the N°88 and N°86 911 RSRs were first and second in Am.

G-Drive Racing’s Jean-Eric Vergne (N°26) toppled the N°38 Idec Sport/Michelin prototype from the LMP2 lead with a quarter-of-an-hour of the session remaining.

Conditions were bright and sunny throughout, with the track and air temperatures standing at 27°C and 21°C at the start of the session. Weather forecasters are predicting rain for Thursday evening, however, so fireworks can be expected during tonight’s Q1 (start: 10pm local time) as teams scrap for the best overnight time which could well turn out to be the pole-winning effort. Last year, Kamui Kobayashi earned first place on the grid for Toyota in Wednesday’s qualifying session thanks to a new lap record of 3m14.791s. For the moment, we are practically four seconds short of that benchmark.