Photo: James Moy/Toyota
Brendon Hartley led the way in the opening Free Practice for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, putting Toyota Gazoo Racing atop the time sheets after three hours of initial running.
Hartley’s 3:26.013 lap time in the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid was nearly six-tenths clear of second-placed Callum Ilott in the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963.
Dries Vanthoor made a series of late-session improvements to put the No. 15 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 third on the time charts, despite one of Vanthoor’s times having been disallowed for track limits.
Julien Andlauer was fourth in the No. 99 Proton Competition Porsche, with Nyck de Vries’ early 3:26.918 lap time in the No. 7 Toyota good enough for fifth overall and in the Hypercar class.
Alex Lynn was sixth in the No. 2 Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac V-Series.R, ahead of the No. 20 BMW of Sheldon van der Linde and Antonio Fuoco’s No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari 499P.
The pair of Signatech-run Alpine A424s completed the top-ten.
Louis Deletraz was quickest in LMP2, putting his Pro-Am subclass No. 14 AO by TF Oreca 07 Gibson atop the time sheets in the second-tier prototype class.
Deletraz’s 3:34.245 was nearly six-tenths clear of the No. 30 Duqueine Team Oreca of James Allen, with Filipe Albuquerque third in the No. 23 United Autosports entry.
The No. 9 Proton Competition Oreca of Bent Viscaal was quickest of the at-large LMP2 entries.
LMGT3 was paced by the No. 87 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F GT3 of Esteban Masson, who laid down a class pace-setting 3:57.808 on his final lap.
It bumped the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 Evo to second quickest in class, ahead of the No. 59 United Autosports McLaren in third.
The session featured two red flags, the first at the halfway mark for the No. 78 Akkodis ASP Lexus of Arnold Robin, which stopped on the side of the circuit at Mulsanne.
It came as Ferdinand Habsburg encountered an air intake issue with his No. 35 Alpine, which also had ground to a halt on track but later limped back to the pits.
A second red was displayed with 20 minutes to go after Lynn grazed the barrier at Tertre Rouge in his No. 2 Cadillac after a spin but continued.
Slow Zones were called for both the No. 65 Panis Racing Oreca of Rodrigo Sales and Ben Keating’s No. 23 United Autosports LMP2 entry, which had separate trips through the gravel early on.
The No. 86 GR Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Mike Wainwright also stopped on track, in the second chicane, which led to another Slow Zone with just more than one hour left on the clock.
Nico Varrone, meanwhile, parked his No. 183 AF Corse Oreca at Tertre Rouge with suspected suspension damage, while Frederik Vesti had an incident in the closing minutes of the session in the No. 47 Cool Racing Oreca at the first chicane.
There was also drama for the No. 88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3, which had a fuel-related fire and spent the remainder of the session in the garage undergoing repairs.
Qualifying, which will lock in the cars for Thursday evening’s Hyperpole, is next up and scheduled for a 7 p.m. local time (1 p.m. EDT) start.
