Cadillac led the way as track activity opened ahead of this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, with Filipe Albuquerque topping the initial test day. The session featured a collision between Ryo Hirakawa’s Toyota and Jake Hughes in the No. 25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca 07 Gibson.
Red flags halted proceedings with 27 minutes remaining after the Goodyear Chicane incident caused heavy damage to the left rear of the No. 8 Toyota TR010 Hybrid as it tangled with Hughes, the Briton on an outlap and making his very first circuit appearance.
The session restarted with 14 minutes to go, and in the closing moments Albuquerque posted a 3:27.011 to lead the No. 101 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, about three tenths ahead of Charles Milesi in the No. 35 Alpine A424.
Albuquerque’s lap was just one thousandth of a second slower than Robert Kubica’s time in the AF Corse Ferrari 499P during the corresponding session last year.
It was a strong morning for Cadillac as Will Stevens slotted third in the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA entry with a 3:27.843, a time that looked set to top the timesheets before a late wave of improvements after the red flag.
Cadillac’s solid form followed its pole for last year’s race courtesy of Alex Lynn, who is absent from this year’s edition.
Roman De Angelis posted a 3:28.086 in the No. 009 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Valkyrie to finish fourth fastest, ahead of the best time set by a Ferrari.
Nicklas Nielsen was another late improver, posting a 3:28.291 in the No. 50 Ferrari 499P, while the pair of Toyotas were next quickest.
Sixth place went to the No. 8 entry thanks to a 3:28.319 from Sebastien Buemi set before its clash with the LMP2 machine, while Kamui Kobayashi was a tenth slower in the sister No. 7 car.
Eighth fastest was the best of the BMW M Hybrid V8s, the No. 15 machine driven by Raffaele Marciello with a 3:28.623 to edge out the second WRT-run BMW of Robin Frijns by three tenths.
The second Aston Martin rounded out the top ten with a 3:28.730 from Ross Gunn aboard the No. 007 Valkyrie.
Le Mans debutant Genesis delivered an impressive showing in 11th as Pipo Derani posted a 3:29.155, about 1.8 seconds off Albuquerque’s pace in the best of the GMR-001s.
It was a low-key session for Peugeot, meanwhile, with the pair of 9X8s sitting 15th and 16th on the leaderboard, well over two seconds behind the leaders.
The Hirakawa/Hughes clash was the only notable interruption to the session aside from a planned 38-minute pause as the safety car procedures were tested.
AF Corse Tops LMP2, LMGT3
While AF Corse’s Ferraris did not top the Hypercar standings, the squad dominated the other two classes, with its No. 183 Oreca 07 Gibson driven by Matthieu Vaxiviere setting the LMP2 pace at 3:35.526.
Vaxiviere was four tenths quicker than Tom Dillmann in the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition car, last year’s class winner, and the AF Corse driver also recorded two tenths faster than the best LMP2 lap from last year’s test day.
Intra-Porsche GTP contention was led by Laurin Heinrich, third quickest with a 3:36.283 aboard the No. 4 CrowdStrike by Algarve Pro Racing machine.
Heinrich was nearly half a second faster than his Porsche stablemate Kevin Estre in the No. 14 TDS entry, while Esteban Masson was fifth for Forestier Racing and Julien Andlauer completed the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP Porsche trio in sixth with a 3:37.440 for Duqueine Team.
Meanwhile, AF Corse’s No. 21 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo led LMGT3 with a 3:57.366 from Alessio Rovera.
He was less than a tenth quicker than Valentin Hasse-Clot’s No. 59 Racing Spirit of Lemans Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, while Jose Maria Lopez was third fastest with a late improvement in the No. 87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3 to post a 3:57.421.
Fourth on the leaderboard was Timur Boguslavskiy in the No. 91 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo with a 3:57.614, while completing the top five was Marvin Kirchhoefer aboard the No. 10 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo that won the previous Spa race.
A further three-hour session is scheduled for this afternoon, getting under way at 3:30 p.m. local time (9:30 a.m. EST).
RESULTS: Test Session 1
