24h Le Mans
Test Day for the 92nd 24 Hours of Le Mans was held at the circuit yesterday. Here are a few relevant stats ahead of the first official free practice on Wednesday.
The fastest time of Test Day was clocked Sunday afternoon by Kévin Estre at the wheel of Porsche Penske Motorsport's #6 Porsche 963 (an average of 237.13 kph). That is a significant improvement on last year when Antonio Giovinazzi registered a 03:29.504 lap in a Ferrari.
The number of Hypercars that beat the best time from last year's Test Day. The top 4 are all in the same second, demonstrating remarkable progress made by the teams who competed in the 24 Hours Centenary as well as the potential of newcomers like BMW and Lamborghini.
The time placed Sébastien Baud and TF Sport's #82 Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R at the top of the timesheet in the new LMGT3 category. Three cars finished below the 4-minute mark, and the second and third times arre identical to the nearest thousandth. Heart of Racing's #27 Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 and Team WRT's #31 BMW M4 LMGT3 both clocked 03:59.92.
Porsche covered the most kilometres during Test Day (365, all six cars considered) which is more than the distance run in last year's 24 Hours Centenary by the #51 Ferrari 499P winner (342). The only official Porsches (the #4, #5 and #6) covered 196 laps, more than half the German marque's total, and the three official Ferraris (the #50, #51 and #83) ran 201 laps.
The fastest time in kph recorded during the six-hour Test Day and credited to Isotta Fraschini's Tipo 6 LMH-C equipped with a 3L V6 turbo. That is more than the top speed registered by the Toyota GR010 Hybrid last year (342.3 kph).
The most laps covered in the Hypercar category during Test Day: the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid completed 35 laps in the morning, and the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 ran 40 in the afternoon.
The cars will retake the track on Wednesday at 14:00 for Free Practice 1, then Qualifying from 19:00 to 20:00 and Free Practice 2 from 22:00 to midnight. All times are local (GMT+2).
