Toyota Gazoo Racing has had a good start to its preparations at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, topping the time sheets at opening practice on Thursday.
In a three-hour session, the #8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid set the quickest time in the hands of defending winner Kazuki Nakajima, who lapped the Circuit de la Sarthe in a best time of 03:21:656. That was 0.334 up on the #7 sister Toyota, which set the quickest time in the hands of Kazuki Nakajima.
The #1 Rebellion R13-Gibson set the third fastest time after initially leading the session early on. Gustavo Menezes’ best time was 1.5s behind Nakajima’s best time with the #3 Rebellion in fourth place thanks to debutant Louis Deletraz.
ByKolles brought up the rear in the class, with the #4 ENSO CLM P1/01 nearly seven seconds behind the top Toyota and three seconds behind the slowest of the Rebellions.
The session was halted with just over an hour remaining when the #89 Porsche 911 RSR in the hands of Steve Brooks had an off at Indanapolis.
Troubles for Racing Team Nederland
In LMP2, frontrunner Racing Team Nederland hit trouble in the closing minutes of the session as Nyck de Vries brought the #29 ORECA 07-Gibson to a halt on track while second in class.
The Dutch squad had topped the sheets for a considerable time thanks to a fast lap from Giedo van der Garde, who set a 03:29:918 which remained untouched until Toyota junior Kenta Yamashita put the #33 High Class Racing ORECA 07-Gibson up top with a 03:29:873 to take the top spot.
The #38 JOTA ORECA 07-Gibson sat in third place with a best time of 03:31:206 courtesy of Antonio Felix da Costa, ahead of the #30 Duqueine ORECA and the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing entry, which rounded out the top five.
Aston Martin up top in GTE
Aston Martin Racing also endured an excellent start to the weekend in both GTE Pro and GTE Am, topping both classes.
In GTE Pro, Alex Lynn proved to be the one to beat in the early hours of the weekend, topping the sheets with a best time of 03:53:930 to put the #97 Aston Martin Vantage AMR firmly up top. Lynn was a second up on the sister #95 Aston Martin Vantage AMR, which best time came at the hands of Marco Sorensen.
The two Aston Martins led the defending GTE Pro class winner, the #51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, with the #71 fourth ahead of the #82 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE Evo. Weathertech Racing was sixth in class, while the two Porsches had an under-the-radar session and brought up the rear in the category, not posting any representative lap times.
In GTE Am, Ross Gunn topped the time sheets late on in the #98 Aston Martin Vantage AMR with a late flyer that produced a lap time of 03:55:484.
That was quicker than the previous top time set by ex-BMW driver Tom Blomqvist in the #72 HubAuto Corsa Ferrari 488 GTE Evo. The Briton posted a 03:56:350, which proved good enough for second place.
The #70 MR Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo was third in class thanks to an early fast lap.
