Toyota fastest in dramatic FP1 at 24 Hours of Le Mans
Toyota topped the timesheets of an action-packed first practice session at the 24 Hours of Le Mans on Wednesday.
Brendon Hartley in the #8 Toyota clocked 3:27.742, the fastest time, to lay down a marker.
Kamui Kobayashi had breached 3:28 first, then Felipe Nasr in the #75 Porsche 963 went second-fastest, until Hartley bettered their efforts.
Earlier, José María López in the #7 Toyota GR010-Hybrid clocked 3:28.290, very shortly after the 3:28.386 posted by Loïc Duval in the Peugeot TotalEnergies #94 Peugeot 9X8.
Five Hypercars improved upon the best time from the test day (set by Ferrari) within the first five laps of FP1.
Louis Prette’s JMW Motorsport’s #66 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo went off track at the Ford chicane, then both Peugeots pitted at the same time after separate issues.
Olli Caldwell in the Alpine Elf Team #35 Oreca 07-Gibson then suffered the same fate as the Ferrari at the Ford chicane.
A red flag was unfurled when Steven Thomas in Tower Motorsports’ #13 Oreca 07 made contact with the Aston Martin Vantage AMR of D’Station Racing (#777).
Casper Stevenson’s car had hit a barrier and was vulnerable to traffic when it was hit.
A second red flag ended the session when the #33 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R went off track.
The JOTA #28 Oreca 07 and COOL Racing's #37 went fastest in the LMP2 class.
GMB Motorsport’s Marco Sørensen in the #42 Aston Martin Vantage was quickest in the LMGTE Am class.
Jenson Button impressed for the Hendrick Motorsports’ NASCAR Garage 56 entry, beating his own previous time by two seconds after the red flag period ended. They did, however, run outside of official classification.
