Le Mans 24h: Toyota leads Alpine by 0.086s in tight FP1
Less than a tenth of a second separated the top three cars as the two Toyotas sandwiched the Alpine in first free practice for this weekend's Le Mans 24 Hours.
Photo by: Marc Fleury
Jose Maria Lopez jumped to the head of the times aboard the #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID with 30 minutes of the three-hour session left on the clock of the opening session for this weekend's double-points round of the World Endurance Championship.
The Argentinian's time of 3m29.309s edged out the Alpine-Gibson A480s in which Andre Negrao had posted a 3m29.395s just over 40 minutes earlier.
Negrao's best lap on Wednesday afternoon was just one thousandth of a second quicker than Kazuki Nakajima's mark in the #8 Toyota.
The Japanese driver set the pace from the beginning, ending up on a 3m29.396s before the first half hour was over.
The best of the LMP2s, the United Autosports ORECA-Gibson 07 driven by Phil Hanson, was only a further tenth off the ultimate pace in fourth position overall.
Hanson's 3m29.441s gave him a margin of over half over the G-Drive Aurus-badged ORECA that Nyck de Vries put fifth overall with a 3m30.094s right at the end of the session.
The fastest two cars in P2s ended up ahead of both Glickenhaus Le Mans Hypercars.
Glickenhaus failed to get within a second of Olivier Pla's time-topping mark in the official Le Mans test day on Sunday.
Richard Westbrook ended up sixth overall in the #709 Glickenhaus-Pipo 007 LMH on a 3m30.216s and Pla seventh with a 3m30.325s in #708.
Tom Blomqvist claimed third in P2 with a 3m30.629s set late on in the best of the Jota ORECAs, just edging out Louis Deletraz's 3m30.724s in the #41 WRT ORECA.
Paul-Loup Chatin took fifth in class for IDEC Sport and Ben Hanley sixth for DragonSpeed.
#48 IDEC Sport Oreca 07 - Gibson LMP2 of Paul Lafargue, Paul-Loup Chatin, Patrick Pilet
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Ferrari led the way in GTE Pro, Daniel Serra improving the #52 AF Corse-run 488 GTE Evo's best to a 3m50.123s as the session neared an end.
That time, seven tenths up on last year's class pole, gave him the top spot by just four hundredths over Nick Tandy, who posted a 3m50.163s in the dying seconds aboard the best of the Chevrolet Corvette C8.Rs.
Gianmaria Bruni was third quickest in the #92 Manthey-run Porsche 911 RSR on 3m50.488s, while James Calado took fourth in the second of the factory Ferraris with a 3m50.611s.
Laurens Vanthoor took fifth in the first of the customer Porsches racing in GTE Pro this year, the Proton-run WeatherTech Racing entry.
Project 1 Porsche driver Matteo Cairoli end up fastest in GTE Am with a 3m50.193s, a time that bettered the GTE Pro pack until the closing minutes.
It still stood as the third best GTE time at the end of the session and gave him a margin of over a second over the GR Racing Porsche in second position in class.
The session was interrupted by two red flags.
The first stoppage came with little more than a minute on the clock when Marco Sorensen tagged the barriers leaving the pits in the #20 High Class Racing ORECA.
The second in the final hour resulted from a coming together between Antonio Felix da Costa's Jota ORECA and the AF Corse-run GTE Am class Ferrari 488 GTE Evo driven by Antonio Fuoco.
First qualifying for the 89th edition of Le Mans starts at 7pm local time.
Le Mans 24 Hours - FP1 results:
| Cla | Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Mike Conway  Kamui Kobayashi  Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 36 | 3'29.309 | |
| 2 |  Andre Negrao  Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere |
Alpine A480 | HYPERCAR | 26 | 3'29.395 | 0.086 |
| 3 |  Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima  Brendon Hartley |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 38 | 3'29.396 | 0.087 |
| 4 | Philip Hanson Fabio Scherer  Filipe Albuquerque |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 28 | 3'29.441 | 0.132 |
| 5 |  Roman Rusinov Franco Colapinto  Nyck de Vries |
Aurus 01 | LMP2 | 36 | 3'30.094 | 0.785 |
| 6 |  Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook Romain Dumas |
Glickenhaus 007 LMH | HYPERCAR | 31 | 3'30.216 | 0.907 |
| 7 | Pipo Derani Franck Mailleux Olivier Pla |
Glickenhaus 007 LMH | HYPERCAR | 29 | 3'30.325 | 1.016 |
| 8 |  Sean Gelael  Stoffel Vandoorne Tom Blomqvist |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 36 | 3'30.629 | 1.320 |
| 9 |  Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz  Ye Yifei |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 33 | 3'30.724 | 1.415 |
| 10 | Paul Lafargue Paul-Loup Chatin Patrick Pilet |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 34 | 3'30.912 | 1.603 |
| 11 |  Henrik Hedman Ben Hanley  Juan Pablo Montoya |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 13 | 3'30.991 | 1.682 |
| 12 | Esteban Garcia Loic Duval Norman Nato |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 34 | 3'30.996 | 1.687 |
| 13 | Robin Frijns  Ferdinand Habsburg Charles Milesi |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 31 | 3'31.158 | 1.849 |
| 14 |  Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 26 | 3'31.279 | 1.970 |
| 15 |  John Falb  Roberto Merhi Rui Andrade |
Aurus 01 | LMP2 | 36 | 3'31.322 | 2.013 |
| 16 | Nico Jamin  Jonathan Aberdein  Manuel Maldonado |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 16 | 3'31.568 | 2.259 |
| 17 | Rene Binder Guillermo Rojas Tristan Gommendy |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 33 | 3'32.145 | 2.836 |
| 18 | Julien Canal Will Stevens James Allen |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 37 | 3'32.236 | 2.927 |
| 19 | Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Job Van Uitert |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 33 | 3'32.428 | 3.119 |
| 20 |  Ryan Cullen Oliver Jarvis Felipe Nasr |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 26 | 3'32.523 | 3.214 |
| 21 | Paul di Resta Alex Lynn Wayne Boyd |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 32 | 3'32.690 | 3.381 |
| 22 |  Dennis Andersen Ricky Taylor Marco Sorensen |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 21 | 3'32.970 | 3.661 |
| 23 |  Miro Konopka Oliver Webb Matej Konopka |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 29 | 3'33.052 | 3.743 |
| 24 | Patrick Kelly Gabriel Aubry Simon Trummer |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 29 | 3'33.308 | 3.999 |
| 25 | Anders Fjordbach Jan Magnussen Kevin Magnussen |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 27 | 3'33.456 | 4.147 |
| 26 | Jakub Smiechowski Renger van der Zande Alex Brundle |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 18 | 3'33.491 | 4.182 |
| 27 | Dwight Merriman Thomas Laurent Ryan Dalziel |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 30 | 3'33.612 | 4.303 |
| 28 | Vincent Capillaire Arnold Robin Maxime Robin |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 30 | 3'33.767 | 4.458 |
| 29 | Tatiana Calderon  Sophia Flörsch Beitske Visser |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 26 | 3'34.114 | 4.805 |
| 30 | Takuma Aoki Nigel Bailly Matthieu Lahaye |
Oreca 07 | INNOVATIVE CAR | 27 | 3'34.510 | 5.201 |
| 31 | James Winslow John Corbett Tom Cloet |
Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 30 | 3'37.048 | 7.739 |
| 32 | Daniel Serra Miguel Molina Sam Bird |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 28 | 3'50.123 | 20.814 |
| 33 | Tommy Milner Nick Tandy Alexander Sims |
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE PRO | 32 | 3'50.163 | 20.854 |
| 34 |  Egidio Perfetti  Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 27 | 3'50.193 | 20.884 |
| 35 | Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 29 | 3'50.488 | 21.179 |
| 36 | Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Côme Ledogar |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 32 | 3'50.611 | 21.302 |
| 37 | Cooper MacNeil Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 22 | 3'50.737 | 21.428 |
| 38 | Dries Vanthoor Alvaro Parente Maxime Martin |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 26 | 3'51.188 | 21.879 |
| 39 | Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Tom Gamble |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 28 | 3'51.326 | 22.017 |
| 40 | Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor Nick Catsburg |
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE PRO | 32 | 3'51.330 | 22.021 |
| 41 | Julien Andlauer Dominique Bastien Lance Arnold |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 30 | 3'51.519 | 22.210 |
| 42 | Kevin Estre Neel Jani Michael Christensen |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 25 | 3'51.542 | 22.233 |
| 43 | Andrew Haryanto Alessio Picariello Marco Seefried |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 31 | 3'51.826 | 22.517 |
| 44 | Takeshi Kimura Scott Andrews Mikkel Jensen |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 31 | 3'51.911 | 22.602 |
| 45 | Ben Keating Dylan Pereira Felipe Fraga |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 33 | 3'52.224 | 22.915 |
| 46 |  Paul Dalla Lana Nicki Thiim Marcos Gomes |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 34 | 3'52.329 | 23.020 |
| 47 | Matteo Cressoni Rino Mastronardi Callum Ilott |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 30 | 3'52.349 | 23.040 |
| 48 | John Hartshorne Ollie Hancock Ross Gunn |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 33 | 3'52.488 | 23.179 |
| 49 | Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 24 | 3'52.528 | 23.219 |
| 50 | François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 30 | 3'52.598 | 23.289 |
| 51 | Duncan Cameron David Perel Matthew Griffin |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 30 | 3'52.809 | 23.500 |
| 52 | Thomas Flohr Giancarlo Fisichella Francesco Castellacci |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 32 | 3'52.838 | 23.529 |
| 53 | Rahel Frey Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 25 | 3'52.873 | 23.564 |
| 54 | Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Andrew Watson |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 32 | 3'52.880 | 23.571 |
| 55 | Claudio Schiavoni Paolo Ruberti Raffaele Giammaria |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 24 | 3'53.042 | 23.733 |
| 56 | Brendan Iribe Ollie Millroy Ben Barnicoat |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 31 | 3'53.076 | 23.767 |
| 57 | Christian Ried Jaxon Evans Matt Campbell |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 12 | 3'53.200 | 23.891 |
| 58 | Pierre Ehret Christian Hook Jeroen Bleekemolen |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 27 | 3'53.222 | 23.913 |
| 59 | Harry Tincknell Vuttikhorn Inthraphuvasak Florian Latorre |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 31 | 3'53.915 | 24.606 |
| 60 | Dennis Olsen Anders Buchardt Robert Foley |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 25 | 3'54.970 | 25.661 |
| 61 | Robert Renauer Ralf Bohn Rolf Ineichen |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 25 | 3'55.223 | 25.914 |
| 62 | Thomas Neubauer Rodrigo Sales Jody Fannin |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 26 | 3'55.682 | 26.373 |
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