Cadillac led the opening practice session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the world’s premier endurance race. In the session held on Wednesday morning (the 10th) at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Earl Bamber, the driver who shares with Sébastien Bourdais and Jack Aitken at Team JOTA, posted a best lap of 3 minutes 23.786 seconds, topping the session.
The second position went to the other Cadillac on the Hypercar grid from WTR, driven by Filipe Albuquerque, who finished 1.562 seconds behind Bamber. BMW claimed the third-best time with René Rast, while Will Stevens added another Cadillac to the four-spot. The top five was completed by Ferdinand Habsburg, in an Alpine.
Toyota saw Brendon Hartley finish the session as the sixth-fastest, followed by Antonio Fuoco’s Ferrari in seventh. Alex Riberas, in an Aston Martin, completed the session with the eighth-best time, ahead of Pipo Derani, the Brazilian who placed Genesis ninth. The top ten was completed by Tom Gamble of Aston Martin.
Among LMP2 competitors, the lead belonged to Duqueine, which saw Doriane Pin clock 3 minutes 25.248 seconds on her best lap. Kevin Estre, with TDS Racing, finished second, followed by Valerio Rinicella of IDEC Sports. The top five also included Dane Cameron of AO by TF and Grégoire Saucy of United Autosport. Pietro Fittipaldi of Vector finished 11th, while Daniel Schneider was 17th with United Autosport.
In LMGT3, the lead ended up in the hands of Jack Hawksworth’s Lexus, who clocked 3 minutes 55.737 seconds on his best lap. Brazilian Augusto Farfus was second with a BMW, followed by his teammate Daniel Harper. Julian Hanses, in a Mercedes, was fourth, while Charlie Eastwood of Corvette completed the top five. Daniel Serra was 12th with a Ferrari, Dudu Barrichello 18th with an Aston Martin, and Custódio Toledo 21st with a Ferrari.
Also on Wednesday, starting at 1:45 p.m., the first qualifying phase takes place, while at 5:00 p.m. the day’s final free practice occurs. The 24 Hours of Le Mans is set to start at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday.
