24h Le Mans
The fourth and final free practice session offered teams one last chance to capture precious data and test race set-ups ahead of the 92nd 24 Hours of Le Mans (15–16 June). Rain made its first appearance of the week as a few spits and spots at the start of the session turned into fine drizzle in the second half of the session, offering the competitors a glimpse of what to expect this weekend with more of the wet stuff forecast especially on Sunday. Happily, the 60-minute session remained free of incident with all the competitors out on the track returning to their garage unscathed.
After the thrills and spills of Hyperpole, the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans field was soon back in action for the final free practice session that began 30 minutes after the initial start time. An accident earlier in the evening brought the Road To Le Mans race to a premature end and upset the subsequent schedule.
Dries Vanthoor was back out in the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 after his Hyperpole attempt ended abruptly in the Indianapolis tyre wall and was first to go under the 3:30 barrier on lap 2. A couple of laps later, Sheldon van der Linde in the #20 sister car, Charles Milesi in the #35 Alpine A424 and Brendon Hartley in the #8 Toyota GR010-Hybrid repeated the feat, the Kiwi in the Japanese hypercar the quickest of the bunch (3:29.451). Miguel Molina in the #50 Ferrari 499P moved up behind the leading Toyota as the half-way mark approached while Nico Müller also recorded a sub-3:30 mark for the Peugeot TotalEnergies #93 Peugeot 9X8.
Three of the top four in Hyperpole – the #6 Porsche 963, the #2 Cadillac V-Series.R and the #51 Ferrari 499P – sat out a large chunk of the session.
All 16 Oreca 07-Gibsons in the LMP2 class all emerged from their garages early in the session. The United Autosports USA #23 car with Ben Hanley at the wheel set the quickest mark in the opening stages followed by the #22 United Autosports entry, before the #24 Nielsen Racing machine split the Anglo-American pair.
Akkodis ASP Team put the #87 Lexus RC F LMGT3 top of the LMGT3 pile with a time of 3:58.755, followed by the Proton Competition #77 Ford Mustang and the Spirit of Race #155 Ferrari. Two of the LMGT3 class gave the session a miss: the TF Sport #82 Corvette and the Proton Competition #88 Ford Mustang.
