Toyota’s Brendon Hartley set the fastest lap time in free practice 1 for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with the Kiwi setting a 3:27.742 onboard the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid.
In second was Hartley’s teammate, Mike Conway in the sister #7 Toyota, just over a tenth slower.
In third was #2 Cadillac V-Series.R, 0.197 off Hartley, with Earl Bamber sweating the car’s best lap.
The session was red flagged twice, one for a crash between the #13 Tower Oreca 07-Gibson and the #777 D’Station Aston Martin Vantage AMR of Casper Stevenson. Stevenson spun after touching the grass on drivers’ left before Tertre Rouge, with the car facing the barriers but still on the racing line.
Steven Thomas, in the Tower LMP2 car, didn’t see the double waved yellows and ploughed into the Aston Martin at considerable speed. While the Aston tub is confirmed to be unrepairable, both drivers are fine and TF Sport, which runs the D’Station team, are investigating a replacement.
Fourth in Hypercar was the #75 Porsche 963 of Felipe Nasr. Fifth was Nico Mueller in the #94 Peugeot 9X8, with his teammate Mikkel Jensen in sixth in the sister #93 car.
Seventh was the fastest of the Ferraris, Antonio Fuoco in the #50 Ferrari 499P, while Sebastien Bourdais eighth in the #3 Cadillac. The top eight in Hypercar were covered by just obver a second, showing the competitiveness of the class this year.
David Heinemeier Hansson led LMP2, with a 3:34.579 onboard the #28 JOTA Oreca 07-Gibson. Second, and leading the pro/am LMP2 subclass, was Nico Lapierre in the #37 COOL Racing Oreca 07-Gibson.
Dorianne Pin was third quickest in LMP2 overall and second in the “pro” LMP2 class, in the #63 Prema Oreca 07-Gibson. Matthieu Vaxiviere was third in LMP2 and fourth with the pro/am class included, with the #36 Alpine Oreca 07-Gibson driver just a couple of hundredths off Pin.
Second and third in LMP2 pro/am, and seventh and eighth in LMP2 overall, was Mathias Beche in the #14 Nielsen Racing Oreca 07-Gibson, and #923 Racing Team Turkey Oreca 07-Gibson’s Salih Yoluc.
Finally, in GTE-Am, the #55 GMB Motorsport Aston Martin topped the timesheets, with Reno Jens Moller setting a 3:55.020. Second was Michael Wainwight in the #86 GR Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19, while Alessio Picariello was third in the #60 Iron Lynx Porsche 911 RSR-19.
The second red flagged came right at the end of the session, caused by Nico Varrone in the #33 Corvette C8.R spinning, also at Tertre Rouge.
Qualifying begins 6pm local time.
